WASHINGTON, DC — U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) today released a summary of fiscal year 2013 border enforcement efforts, which reflects the administration’s focus on reducing threats, optimizing resources and building partnerships to secure our nation’s borders and facilitate trade and travel.
“Throughout the year, the men and women of CBP serving on the frontlines played a decisive role in ensuring our nation’s security and economic prosperity,” said Acting Commissioner Thomas S. Winkowski. “From border security to travel facilitation and trade enforcement, these statistics illustrate CBP’s combined efforts in FY 2013 to accomplish its critical mission.”
Securing and Facilitating Record Levels of Trade and Travel
CBP has focused on reducing barriers to fast, efficient and secure travel to and from the U.S., which supported 16 percent growth in international airport arrivals since 2009. At airports, CBP officers processed more than 102 million international travelers, an increase of more than 4 percent from FY 2012. Overall, in FY 2013, CBP officers processed more than 360 million travelers at U.S. air, land and sea ports.
As a result of CBP’s Resource Optimization Strategy, the agency continues to bring advances in technology and automation at ports of entry:
• Automation of the Form I-94 Arrival/Departure Record increases efficiencies and facilitates security and travel while saving an estimated $19 million annually.
• Paperless and passenger-direct processing techniques, such as Automated Passport Control kiosks, were introduced to the international arrivals process in FY 2013 to streamline the traveler inspection process, reduce wait times, and enhance security.
• Public-private partnerships, such as the Section 560 Reimbursable Fee Agreements, increase CBP’s ability to provide new or enhanced services on a reimbursable basis to support growth in cross-border trade and travel and cover the entirety of CBP air, land and sea operations.
This year, CBP processed more than $2.3 trillion in trade while enforcing U.S. trade laws that protect the nation’s economy and the health and safety of the American public. CBP processed nearly 25 million cargo containers through the nation’s ports of entry, up 1 percent from last year. CBP conducted more than 24,000 seizures of goods that violated intellectual property rights, with a total retail value of $1.7 billion, representing a 38 percent increase in value from FY 2012.
Facilitating trade and travel in FY2013, CBP has enrolled more than 1 million new travelers in the agency’s Trusted Traveler Programs (Global Entry, SENTRI, NEXUS and FAST), with overall membership at more than 2.2 million people by the end of the fiscal year, with more than 1 million members in Global Entry alone. CBP’s Trusted Traveler Programs are designed to expedite screening for low-risk travelers through rigorous and recurrent background checks. In addition to providing benefits for members at ports of entry, members of CBP Trusted Traveler Programs are now eligible for the Transportation Security Administration’s Pre✓™ program for domestic travel at more than 100 U.S. airports.
In addition to support ever increasing international trade, CBP opened six new Centers of Excellence and Expertise in FY 2013. Including the four opened in FY 2012, CBP’s 10 centers cover the full range of commodities. The industry-specific centers serve as single points of processing for participating importers. They increase uniformity of practices across ports of entry, facilitate the timely resolution of trade compliance issues nationwide, and offer important information from CBP on key industry practices to facilitate legitimate trade. The new centers are based in Chicago, Miami, San Francisco, Atlanta, Buffalo, N.Y., and Laredo, Texas to support the Base Metals; Agriculture & Prepared Products; Apparel, Footwear & Textiles; Consumer Products & Mass Merchandising; Industrial & Manufacturing Materials; and Machinery industries, respectively.
The Beyond the Border Action Plan, signed by President Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2012, articulates a shared vision in which the U.S. and Canada work together to address threats at the earliest point possible while facilitating the legitimate movement of people, goods and services across their shared border. In FY 2013, Beyond the Border successfully completed Phase I of the Cargo Pre-Inspection pilot and developed and publicly issued an Integrated Cargo Security Strategy (ICSS), agreeing to test the strategy in three pilot locations.
As part of FY2013 appropriations, CBP received entry-exit policy and operations authority to complement its overall mission. In addition, partnering with the Canada Border Services Agency, CBP delivered a program where the United States and Canada exchange entry information on third country nationals who cross the shared land border, such that an entry into one country serves as an exit from the other. The two countries have exchanged more than 2 million exit records to date.
Enforcement Efforts At and Between Ports of Entry
U.S. Border Patrol apprehensions totaled 420,789 nationwide in FY 2013, 16 percent above FY2012, but 42 percent below FY 2008 levels. While Border Patrol apprehensions of Mexicans in FY 2013 remained largely unchanged from FY2012, apprehensions of individuals from countries other than Mexico, predominately individuals from Central America, increased by 55 percent. Significant border-wide investments in additional enforcement resources and enhanced operational tactics and strategy have enabled CBP to address the changing composition of attempted border crossers and maintain border security. CBP officers and agents seized more than 4.3 million pounds of narcotics across the country in FY 2013. In addition, the agency seized more than $106 million in unreported currency through targeted enforcement operations.
At ports of entry in FY 2013, CBP officers arrested 7,976 people wanted for serious crimes, including murder, rape, assault and robbery. Officers also stopped more than 132,000 inadmissible aliens from entering the U.S. through ports of entry. Inadmissibility grounds included immigration violations, criminal and national security-related reasons. As a result of the efforts of CBP’s National Targeting Center and Immigration Advisory Program, 5,378 high-risk travelers, who would have been found inadmissible, were prevented from boarding flights destined for the U.S., an increase of 28 percent from FY 2012. Additionally, CBP agriculture specialists conducted approximately 1.6 million interceptions of prohibited plant materials, meat, and animal byproducts at ports of entry while also stopping more than 160,000 potentially dangerous pests.
CBP continues to deploy proven, effective surveillance technology tailored to operational requirements along the highest trafficked areas of the Southwest Border. CBP’s air assets, including the Unmanned Aircraft Systems and P-3 programs, flew more than 61,000 hours in enforcement missions combined in FY 2013. Air and Marine operations contributed to the seizure of more than 1.1 million pounds of narcotics and the apprehension of 629 individuals involved in illicit activities.
A breakdown of CBP enforcement actions by state along the U.S. southwest border is below:
Enforcement Actions: Arizona – Texas – New Mexico – California – Total SWB
Apprehensions: 125,942 – 235,567 – 7,983 – 44,905 – 414,397
Drug Seizures: 1.3M pounds – 1.2M pounds – 77.8K pounds – 274.8K pounds – 2.9M pounds
Currency Seizures: $7.6M – $13.6M – $1.8M – $18.1M – $41.3M
Inadmissible: 10,074 – 49,789 – 761 – 41,983 – 102,607
In FY 2013, $55 million in Operation Stonegarden funding was provided to states to enhance border security cooperation and coordination among local, tribal, territorial, state and federal law enforcement agencies. States that received funding in FY 2013 included Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas on the southern border; Idaho, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont and Washington on the northern border, and Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Puerto Rico on the coastal borders.
