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STATEMENT

OF

JULIE L. MYERS

ASSISTANT SECRETARY

U.S. IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT (ICE)

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY

BEFORE

HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE

Subcommittee on HOMELAND SECURITY

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

10:00 AM

Washington, D.C.

[INTRODUCTION]{.underline}

### 

Good morning, Chairman ­­Price­, Congressman Rogers, and distinguished
Members of the Committee. I am pleased to appear before you today to
discuss the President's Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 budget request for U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). I want to thank the Committee
for its continued support of ICE, which has allowed the dedicated men
and women of the agency to accomplish so much.

ICE's mission is to uphold public safety and protect the American people
from the illegal introduction of goods, as well as the entry of
terrorists and other criminals seeking to cross our Nation's borders. As
the largest investigative component of the Department of Homeland
Security, ICE accomplishes this mission by aggressively enforcing over
400 of the Nation's immigration and customs laws.

In a few days, ICE will be five years old. Since its creation, the
members of this committee have shown tremendous support for ICE and our
mission, and you have demonstrated that support through significant
investments in our mission. We are grateful for your support and the
investment you've made. The men and women of ICE are working every day
to ensure that the American people see a return on that investment. I
believe that the agency's accomplishments in the last five years are
proof of that fact.

[Since FY 2003]{.underline}, ICE has:

-   Effectively ended catch and release on the Southwest Border and
    removed 436,000 criminal aliens from the United States;

-   Arrested more than 10,000 child predators;

-   Conducted investigations related to the seizure of more than 8
    million pounds of illegal drugs;

-   Arrested almost 9,000 human smugglers;

-   Obtained over \$50 million in worksite fines and judgments against
    employers;

-   Signed 38 MOUs and trained 600 State and local law enforcement
    officers under the 287(g) program as well as launched ICE ACCESS;

-   Provided information in response to over 2 million inquiries for
    immigration status and identity information to Federal, State, and
    local law enforcement.

-   Stopped 23,000 persons and over 3 million dangerous items from
    entering Federal buildings; and

-   Put its financial house in order, eliminating eight material
    weaknesses in just two years, and putting controls in place to
    ensure ICE is a responsible steward of the taxpayers' dollars.

Your support and partnership has been integral to these successes and
key to the men and women who are working every day to make the United
States safe and more secure.

Notwithstanding these successes, we also need to face the difficult
reality that there is still so much more to do. ICE has a continual
fight to stop potential terrorist and other criminal activity; apprehend
child predators; remove criminal aliens; thwart the illegal export of
weapons, illicit proceeds, and sensitive technology; interdict the
smuggling of dangerous drugs; prevent the importation of tainted
commodities and counterfeit pharmaceuticals; disable human trafficking
networks that endanger human life and national security; and ensure our
Federal buildings are safe to work in and visit. In the last five years,
we have made tremendous progress in combating each of these threats.

Utilizing customs and immigration authorities, ICE continues to focus on
the enforcement, prevention, and investigation of the smuggling of
people, goods, illicit funds, and contraband into and out of the United
States. The toolbox of authorities available is critical to ICE's
ability to effectively fulfill its mission, as those that smuggle people
today across our borders will seek to smuggle drugs, substandard
commodities or weapons of terror tomorrow. The criminal organizations we
face, are driven not by what they smuggle, but by profit.

For example, in 2007, ICE Fort Pierce agents responded to a migrant
landing in Florida and arrested ten individuals illegally present in the
United States.  Further investigation resulted in the seizure of 83
pounds of marijuana, 2 kilograms of heroin, and 1 kilogram of cocaine. 
ICE agents subsequently obtained indictments for two individuals for
conspiracy to smuggle aliens, importation of marijuana and cocaine, and
carrying a firearm during a drug trafficking crime. 

With this in mind, ICE, in partnership with our fellow law enforcement
agencies must be fully equipped to address all illegal smuggling across
our nation's borders. To most effectively address the myriad of criminal
threats within the umbrella of our mission, ICE has embarked on a
strategy to thwart the terrorist and other criminal threat within its
statutory jurisdiction and authorities by targeting the "Continuum of
Crime." This three-tiered strategy focuses investigative, detention and
removal, and other enforcement efforts on elements of crime by:
Identifying and mitigating threats outside of the United States,
partnering with other Federal, foreign and local agencies to target
crime along U.S. borders, and ensuring security within the U.S. interior
by investigating and prosecuting border-related crime and removing
criminal aliens.

Today I will discuss the agency's top law enforcement priorities, our
success in bringing about organizational excellence, as well as our
request for funding in FY 2009 and how it will allow us to continue
standing up to the threats facing our country.

**[Immigration Enforcement]{.underline}**

ICE has made tremendous progress in immigration enforcement through
greater innovation with our resources combined with more effective
oversight.

With the Committee's support, ICE is transforming the way it identifies
and goes after individuals who pose a threat to our Nation. This is
particularly accurate when it comes to aliens who are currently serving
time for other crimes. We have made some great progress on our program
to identify criminal aliens in jails in the last two years:

-   ICE's Criminal Alien Program (CAP) charged more than 164,000
    removable aliens in Federal, State, and local custody during
    FY 2007. This is an increase of 142 percent over FY 2006's 67,850
    aliens charged. This screening and charging ensures that whenever
    they get out of institutions, they'll come straight into our
    custody.

-   To make sure we were addressing this threat in a reasonable manner,
    ICE assessed nearly 5,000 jails and prisons in the United States to
    determine which facilities have the most removable aliens and which
    represent the highest risk. Our efforts have been focused on the
    highest risk facilities, which include all Federal and state
    institutions and some local jails.

-   To address the high-risk Bureau of Prisons' correctional
    institutions, ICE established the Detention Enforcement and
    Processing Offenders by Remote Technology (DEPORT) center in
    Chicago. DEPORT supports the screening, interviewing and removal
    processing of all criminal aliens incarcerated in BOP facilities
    nationwide. Since its inception in 2006, DEPORT has screened over
    33,000 cases, issued more than 17,000 charging documents to begin
    removal proceedings, and lodged more than 11,000 detainers.

Although we have made considerable progress over the past several years
in identifying and removing criminal aliens, enhancements to our current
approach are required to reach our goal of removing all convicted
criminal aliens. With encouragement from the Congress, we are
aggressively implementing a plan to increase national security and
community safety by identifying, prioritizing, detaining, and removing
from the United States all criminal aliens in Federal, State, and local
custody. 

More specifically, the plan will provide a path forward to:

-   Strengthen partnerships with Federal, State, and local law
    enforcement agencies;

-   Improve technologies and processes that share national and local
    immigration and law enforcement data;

-   Streamline and expedite procedures for detaining and removing
    aliens;

-   Expand the use of incentives to reduce sentences for non-violent
    offenders who participate in their removal;

-   Work aggressively with foreign governments to strengthen their
    capacity and often their willingness to accept the return of
    increased numbers of their citizens;

-   Increase efforts to deter those who would come to the United States
    illegally; and

-   Create greater disincentives for recidivism.

Our new plan will start with these local institutions where we have
limited coverage. Instead of sending costly teams to each of these
locations where they may not regularly incarcerate aliens, ICE will
leverage technology and utilize the sharing of data between the
Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security. Local law
enforcement agents will be able to send fingerprints collected at the
time of conviction in an automated fashion to the Department of Justice
and Homeland Security, where these prints will be checked against
various criminal and immigration databases through a system known as
Interoperability.

Hits will be automatically sent to the ICE field offices, prioritizing
the criminal aliens by severity of their crimes. With the support of the
Administration and Congress, ICE proposes to focus on processing,
detaining, and removing the most severe of the criminals nationwide as
the first phase of our plan.

Of course, some of the most dangerous criminals and sophisticated
criminal organizations are regrettably out on the streets. Identifying
criminal aliens in jails is just one part of our interior enforcement
strategy to prevent immigration crime. For this reason, ICE has
successfully developed a robust series of initiatives to enforce our
immigration laws in the interior of our nation.

-   Programs that specifically target child predators and gang members
    have resulted in more than 2,200 deportations in FY 07 alone. In
    addition, nearly 1,500 individuals have been charged criminally for
    immigration and gang-related crimes as a result of these initiatives
    including David Rivera, one of ICE's most wanted fugitives, a
    suspected MS-13 gang member who was previously deported on a weapons
    charge, re-entered the country illegally, and was wanted for
    questioning in connection with four homicides. He now faces a
    20-year prison sentence and deportation to follow.

-   ICE's compliance enforcement initiatives are ensuring that those who
    visit our nation for school or simply to tour remain in compliance
    with the terms of their visas. Had these efforts been in place prior
    to 9/11, all of the hijackers who failed to maintain status would
    have come under additional scrutiny and likely been investigated
    months before the attacks in New York and Washington. In FY 2007,
    ICE resolved 5,200 potential violator leads and arrested 1,366
    high-risk non-immigrant status violators.

-   But visitors are not the only ones who we target for compliance. In
    FY 2007, we made progress for the first time ever against those
    individuals who've thus far failed to comply with an immigration
    judge's removal order. Targeting these alien absconders -- fugitives
    -- is the charge of 75 dedicated fugitive operations teams. In 2007,
    ICE decreased the overall caseload of fugitives by 37,970 -- a
    first-time ever reduction in a class of immigration violators that
    has traditionally grown by roughly 5,682 cases per month.

In addition to targeting certain criminal and fugitive aliens directly,
ICE has a cadre of initiatives to dismantle the infrastructure that
supports illicit immigration activity.

-   In 2007, ICE significantly enhanced its efforts to combat the
    unlawful employment of illegal aliens by utilizing administrative
    and criminal statutes and targeting the financial incentives to hire
    illegal aliens. Last year, we secured criminal fines, restitutions
    and civil judgments in excess of \$30 million, made 863 criminal
    arrests and 4,077 administrative arrests. In one case, for example,
    a review of the employees working for the City of Los Angeles
    Department of Water and Power (DWP) and other related water
    treatment programs in the county identified 11 unauthorized aliens
    who were employed at water treatment facilities. Most of the
    unauthorized workers were in highly placed positions with access to
    by-pass most of the protective measures designed to protect the
    water supply. All 11 unauthorized aliens were administratively
    arrested and removed from the United States.

-   Our Extraterritorial Criminal Travel Strike Force (ECT) also combats
    the support network for illegal aliens. This cooperative initiative
    between ICE and the Criminal Division of the Justice Department
    leverages extraterritorial investigative and prosecutorial expertise
    to attack foreign-based criminal networks. Through these strike
    forces, we are pushing out our borders by aggressively targeting
    criminal smuggling organizations in source countries and using
    intelligence to identifying new smuggling methods and routes.

-   Another part of our effort to destroy the infrastructure that
    supports illegal immigration is to shut down the illicit trade in
    phony documents and others forms of immigration benefit fraud. In FY
    2007, ICE created six new document and benefit fraud task forces,
    increasing the total from 11 to 17. Last year, they initiated a
    combined 625 investigations, resulting in 549 arrests, 453
    indictments, and 352 convictions. Just this January, Pedro Castorena
    was successfully extradited from Mexico. Castorena led a large-scale
    organization involved in manufacturing and distributing counterfeit
    identity documents. With our federal partners, ICE agents have
    arrested more than 50 members of the Castorena organization and a
    rival document manufacturing organization and seized 20 document
    manufacturing locations; tens of thousands of blank counterfeit
    identity documents; 21 silk screen printing negatives; and 21
    computers. Upon his extradition, Castorena was remanded to the
    custody of U.S. Marshals.

Arresting immigration violators is only half the battle. ICE is
responsible for the detention and removal of illegal aliens from the
United States. The agency takes very seriously its responsibility to
care for those in our custody. In the past two years, we have taken a
number of additional steps to ensure we are meeting our responsibilities
safely and appropriately:

-   ICE created the Detention Facility Inspection Group as part of the
    Office of Professional Responsibility to serve as an independent
    review mechanism and investigate allegations of mistreatment or
    non-compliance with the National Detention Standards;

-   Quality assurance specialists are being placed in ICE's largest
    facilities to monitor daily quality-of-life issues;

-   ICE developed, completed and released 37 family residential
    standards for use in its family facilities. The standards are
    published on ICE's website. Among these standards are the
    requirements that all resident children receive classroom
    instruction taught by State-certified teachers, including ESL
    classes; and that health care is provided by the U.S. Public Health
    Service.

-   In addition to these new family standards, ICE is in the process of
    updating our existing national detention standards for adult
    facilities to a performance-based format. We have shared the draft
    performance-based standards with interested non-governmental
    organizations and look forward to receiving their comments and
    suggestions.

ICE also looks forward this year to expanding the Alternatives to
Detention Program, as appropriate, for non-criminal aliens.

**[High Risk Customs Violations]{.underline}**

ICE's mission also places equal importance on intercepting the flow of
money and materials that support criminal and terrorist organizations.
ICE's customs authorities allow the agency to play a leading role in the
fight against money laundering, trade fraud, bulk cash smuggling, the
distribution of counterfeit goods and trafficking in weapons, sensitive
technology, narcotics and more. The importance of these investigations
to our national security and public safety can speak for themselves.
Last year:

-   With only 25% of our Special Agents authorized to conduct drug
    smuggling investigations, the Office of Investigations seized
    approximately 227,000 pounds of cocaine, and 1.3 million pounds of
    marijuana, and other narcotics, as well as obtained 5,400
    convictions of individuals associated with narcotic violations.

-   The ICE sponsored Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Taskforce
    investigation, Operation Tien \[T-I-N\] Can resulted in the arrest
    of 35 members of an organization headed by Nguyen \[N-WIN\] Vo and
    Helen Tran. In a coordinated effort with the Royal Canadian Mounted
    Police in Canada, the DEA, and various state and local law
    enforcement entities, ICE agents and our partners seized \$7.8
    million in U.S. currency, \$866,000 in Canadian currency, 76
    kilograms of cocaine, and 924 pounds of marijuana during the course
    of the investigation.

-   During FY 2007, ICE initiated over 3,000 financial investigations,
    resulting in almost 1,400 arrests and 900 convictions.

-   Trade Transparency Units provided direct support to an investigation
    in Brazil and Miami surrounding a \$200 million fraud scheme
    resulting in arrests of criminal organization members undervaluing
    commodities imported into Brazil from the United States.

-   ICE initiated 1,275 Commercial Fraud & Intellectual Property Rights
    investigations which resulted in 246 criminal arrests, 178
    indictments and 196 convictions.

-   ICE has initiated Operation Guardian, an ICE-led operation with
    Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the Food and Drug
    Administration (FDA), and Consumer Product Safety Commission, to
    target, interdict, and investigate the importation of substandard,
    tainted and dangerous products being imported into the United States
    from the Peoples Republic of China.

-   Since the inception of Operation Firewall, a bulk cash smuggling
    initiative, in 2005, ICE and our other partners in law enforcement
    have seized more than \$118 million, with \$50 million and 142
    arrests coming in FY 2007 alone. So far in FY 2008 Operation
    Firewall has resulted in 29 arrests and 358 seizures totaling almost
    \$17 million, including \$2.5 million seized in New York and almost
    \$5 million seized in Texas. In 2008, under the Hands Across the
    World initiative, ICE has expanded Operation Firewall to increase
    the impact of our efforts by conducting simultaneous bulk cash
    smuggling operations between the U.S. and partner foreign law
    enforcement agencies. These joint operations often follow training
    conducted by ICE and CBP officers and give our foreign counterparts
    an immediate opportunity to apply the best practices and enforcement
    techniques that they have learned. The concept of conducting
    coordinated simultaneous operations was tested in September 2007
    when ICE, CBP and our counterparts in Her Majesty\'s Revenue and
    Customs conducted a two day pilot that resulted in 13 enforcement
    actions in the two countries.

-   Arms and Strategic Technology investigations resulted in 188
    arrests, 178 indictments, and 127 convictions, prevented the illegal
    export of sensitive technologies as well as weapons from reaching
    the hands of terrorists, hostile countries and violent criminal
    organizations. In March 2007, an ICE investigation of ITT
    Corporation led to a \$100 million settlement and the first ever
    Arms Export Control Act (AECA) conviction of a major defense
    contractor. As part of the illegal scheme, ITT illegally outsourced
    the manufacturing of the Enhanced Night Vision Goggle (ENVG) system
    to a Singaporean company employing Chinese nationals and retained
    foreign nationals in their Roanoke, Virginia facility without
    permission from the Department of State. The settlement includes ITT
    allocating \$50 million towards the creation of the next generation
    of night vision technology for the Department of Defense.

-   An Arms and Strategic Technology undercover operation resulted in
    six guilty pleas to export weapons and ammunition, money laundering,
    and material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization
    violations. During an ICE undercover investigation, the subjects
    attempted to procure a multi-ton shipment of small arms, grenade
    launchers, a Stinger missile and ammunition in support of the
    Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE aka: Tamil Tigers)., a
    designated foreign terrorist organization.

-   In relation to addressing the threat of foreign nationals having
    access to sensitive U.S. technologies, ICE has created Operation
    Tech Defense, to insure that non-immigrants working in U.S.
    sensitive technology manufacturing and research facilities have the
    proper authorization to conduct such work. Operation Tech Defense
    allows ICE to leverage both traditional export enforcement
    authorities and Title 8 immigration responsibilities to address this
    vulnerability in our national security.

**[Organizational Excellence]{.underline}**

As a relatively new agency, ICE faced management challenges in
integrating the various functions that were brought together in 2003.
While ICE's primary mission is law enforcement and security operations,
the mission relies on the management, administrative, legal and training
support provided by a skilled cadre of professionals nationwide.

ICE has transformed its core management functions and put a strong team
in place, including a permanent career chief financial officer and a
deputy assistant secretary for management. Here are just a few of our
management achievements:

-   Two years ago, independent auditors cited ICE for eight material
    weaknesses. In response, we developed and implemented an ambitious
    Financial Action Plan and as a result, in just two fiscal years, ICE
    eliminated all eight material weaknesses.

-   ICE implemented major business improvements in FPS over the last
    year, including establishing a new financial accounting process and
    business practices to ensure timely and accurate payment to vendors.
    We also trained more than 400 Inspectors to manage and oversee
    contract guards. As you know, we are transforming FPS and moving
    toward an Inspector-based workforce. This will provide better
    oversight for an extensive contract guard service that has been
    fully maintained and provides the first line of security for the
    federal facilities protected by FPS. We must ensure we have a proper
    balance of strong security standards, contractor compliance and an
    FPS law enforcement workforce providing services to the Federal
    agencies we serve.

-   We deepened our recruiting pool by establishing internship programs
    with four historically black colleges and universities to provide
    opportunities for students interested in law enforcement. These
    programs will develop the next generation of leaders at ICE while
    expanding diversity in the agency's workforce. Ultimately, ICE
    intends to conclude similar agreements with all 57 historically
    black colleges and universities that offer criminal justice
    programs.

-   ICE eliminated the backlog of FOIA cases in 2006, which numbered
    10,000 at the start of FY 2007.

-   Since the creation of DHS and ICE, the email systems needed to
    converge into one efficient, seamless global network. The ICE OCIO
    worked to transition approximately 15,000 ICE users worldwide to one
    email system.

**[ICE FY 2009 BUDGET REQUEST]{.underline}**

The proposed FY 2009 budget builds on the foundation of these
accomplishments and equals \$5.7 billion, which represents an increase
of approximately 12 percent over FY 2008, excluding emergency funding
provided by the Congress. Program increases total over \$160 million and
target the priority areas of this Administration to allow ICE to be a
highly valuable contributor to the Secure Border Initiative (SBI),
enforce customs laws critical to the Nation's security, and ensure we
are protecting the American public.

This budget will provide for:

-   1,000 new detention beds;

-   11,000 removals;

-   Over 200 Special Agents for investigative activities ranging from
    cyber crime to visa security;

-   200 new State and local officers to the cadre of 287(g) program
    participants; and

-   Improved HR, Training, and IT services for ICE's 17,000 Federal
    employees.

[FY 2009 Enhancement Request]{.underline}

The President's FY 2009 budget request for ICE seeks the following
enhancements.

*Additional Bed Space.* \$46 million and increased fee authority are
requested for 1,000 additional beds, staffing, and associated removal
costs to meet demand generated by increased enforcement activities. The
funding will continue "catch and return" along the borders.

*National Security/Critical Infrastructure Investigations*. \$11.8
million is requested to increase investigations at Ports of Entry and
other sensitive facilities. With the funding, ICE will aggressively
investigate employers who collaborate with smuggling and trafficking
organizations to promote illegal entry and knowingly hire undocumented
aliens within critical infrastructures and Ports of Entry and increase
the possibility of terrorists gaining access to these sites.

*Cyber Crime.* ICE requests \$5.7 million to increase investigations of
cyber-related crimes involving identity and benefit fraud, child
exploitation, and money laundering. Many ICE investigations and
prosecutions are largely dependent upon the ability of the Cyber Crime
Center to process and analyze data from seized electronic devices and
digital media and this increase will ensure successful ICE
investigations.

*Commercial Fraud/Intellectual Property Rights Investigations*. ICE
requests \$4.6 million to identify, target, counter, and dismantle
methods and vulnerabilities exploited by criminal organizations engaged
in highly profitable trade crimes, such as trafficking counterfeit
merchandise and pharmaceuticals. Requested resources will enhance ICE's
coordination with other agencies to target, interdict, and investigate
the importation of substandard, tainted, and counterfeit products being
imported

*287(g) Program for State and Local Law Enforcement*. \$12 million is
requested to train 200 new State and local law enforcement officers
(LEOs), required annual refresher training for 850 State and local LEOs,
and necessary IT connectivity for State and local participants under the
287(g) program. The 287(g) program serves as a force multiplier to ICE
efforts to enforce immigration law and remove criminal aliens from the
United States and is another important tool for State and local law
enforcement participants to improve their communities' safety.

*Outbound Enforcement*. \$1 million is requested to increase
investigations that help to prevent arms, strategic technologies, and
contraband money from leaving the United States. The program will target
the Southwest border, and particularly Ports of Entry and sensitive
facilities that are vulnerable to illegal procurement and export of
sophisticated U.S. technology and weapons, particularly specifically a
joint effort to stem the flow of illegally smuggled weapons at the
Southwest Border region.

*Visa Security Program.* \$3.4 million is requested to create additional
overseas Visa Security Units in high-risk locations, such as Istanbul,
Turkey and Beirut, Lebanon. The Visa Security Program identifies,
prioritizes, and interdicts threats to the Nation in advance of physical
arrival by reducing visa issuance to malafide aliens and identifying
threats to national security that traditional screening systems do not
detect.

*Workforce Integrity Investigations/Security Management Unit.* ICE is
requesting \$7.1 million for the ICE Office of Professional
Responsibility. Funding will be used to strengthen the Security
Management Unit responsible for centralization, management, and
operational oversight of ICE internal security functions, as well as to
strengthen workforce integrity.

*Automation Modernization.* ICE is requesting \$57 million to help ICE
build its information technology infrastructure and specifically fund
efforts to:

-   modernize ICE's case management system - Homeland Security
    Enforcement Communication System (HECS) - to strengthen information
    sharing and availability;

-   continue critical IT Infrastructure and Tactical Communications
    investments to create and sustain a secure, scalable IT environment
    that supports ICE law enforcement programs;

-   modernize DRO's IT systems to improve detainee tracking and
    management; and

-   begin the ICE transition to a new financial system, which will allow
    strengthened financial management and audit practices.

*Co-Location of ICE Personnel.* \$12.3 million is requested to
consolidate ICE offices in several major metropolitan areas where ICE
currently occupies multiple buildings. Besides impeding efforts to build
a cohesive agency, building space has not kept pace with staff growth.
The request will allow for long-term cost savings and operational
efficiencies in areas such as building security, rent, and shared
utility costs.

*Human Resource Workforce Increases.* ICE is requesting \$800 thousand
for additional staffing required for effective delivery of HR services
to the 17,000 Federal ICE employees. The request addresses staffing
shortages in the ICE Office of Human Capital, making it possible to
provide better service, increase confidence in information, and ensure
consistent handling of ICE-related personnel matters.

*Training Consolidation and Integration.* \$1.8 million is requested to
consolidate ICE training coordination and oversight, to include improved
training delivery and support at the ICE Academy and the Leadership
Development Center. The request will allow ICE to build a strong
infrastructure, target improved core competency skills of employees,
ensure sufficient and relevant training is provided, and focus on
leadership and succession planning.

*Student and Exchange Visitor Program.* ICE's Student and Exchange
Visitor Program and its technology (SEVIS) are fully funded by two
separate fees: a fee to collect from schools seeking certification to
host non-immigrant students and a fee from prospective students and
exchange visitors prior to seeking a visa at consulates and embassies
overseas. The FY 2009 request assumes an increase in the fees that SEVP
estimates it will collect based on the most recent fee study.

The request will allow ICE to implement four new enhancements -- a
more-user friendly student and exchange visa information system (SEVIS
II) with better search capabilities and improved data quality; a
recertification process that will ensure that only the schools who are
following the rules can remain in the program; regional liaisons to help
schools meet the requirements of the student/exchange program; and
additional compliance enforcement unit agents to review potential
violators.

**[CONCLUSION]{.underline}**

ICE began five years ago as a conglomeration of different government
agencies. In that time, the thousands of ICE employees have come
together to form one cohesive organization and accomplish critical and
extraordinary things for the Nation. The FY 2009 ICE budget request
builds upon the support the Committee has given ICE and builds a
strategic path forward to critical successes in the future. Thank you
for your continued support -- the men and women of ICE depend on it each
day they go to work, putting their lives on the line to enforce the
Nation's laws and make it a safer place to live and work. Thank you for
your time and I look forward to answering your questions.