Border Enforcement, Security, and Trade (BEST) Facilitation Act of 2023

To amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to authorize Office of Field Operations positions, and for other purposes. 1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Border Enforcement, Security, and Trade (BEST) Facilitation Act of 2023 2. New office of field operations positions authorized Section 411(g) of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 ( 6 U.S.C. 211(g) (6) Image technician positions (A) Image technician (i) In general There shall be in the Office of Field Operations, the position of Image Technician, who shall be appointed in accordance with the provisions under chapter 33 (relating to appointments in the competitive service) and chapters 51 and 53 (relating to classification and rates of pay) of title 5, United States Code. (ii) Duties (I) In general Duties of an Image Technician shall include— (aa) reviewing non-intrusive inspection images of conveyances and containers entering or exiting the United States through a land, sea, or air port of entry or international rail crossing; (bb) assessing whether images of conveyances and containers appear to contain anomalies indicating the potential presence of contraband, persons unlawfully seeking to enter or exit the United States, or illicitly concealed merchandise, including illicit drugs and terrorist weapons; (cc) recommend entry release or exit release for any conveyances and containers where the images do not include noticeable anomalies indicating the potential presence of contraband, persons seeking to unlawfully enter or exit the United States, or illicitly concealed merchandise, including illicit drugs or terrorist weapons, to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officer responsible for inspecting such conveyance or container. (dd) recommend for further inspection any conveyances and containers where any image the Image Technician reasonably believes contains anomalies indicating the potential presence of contraband, persons seeking to unlawfully enter or exit the United States, or illicitly concealed merchandise, such as illicit drugs or terrorist weapons, to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officer who is responsible for inspecting such conveyance or container; and (ee) referring to a Supervisory Image Technician any image of conveyances or containers that is difficult to review or assess due to poor image quality or other factors. (II) Rule of construction A U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officer shall retain the discretion and final decision-making authority to release conveyances or cargo for entry or exit or to refer such conveyance or cargo for further inspection. (B) Supervisory image technician (i) In general There shall be in the Office of Field Operations, the position of Supervisory Image Technician, who shall be appointed in accordance with the provisions under chapter 33 (relating to appointments in the competitive service) and chapters 51 and 53 (relating to classification and rates of pay) of title 5, United States Code. (ii) Duties (I) In general Duties of a Supervisory Image Technician shall include— (aa) carrying out all of the duties described in clauses (i) through (iv) of subparagraph (A); (bb) reviewing and making a recommendation regarding images referred by an Image Technician pursuant to subparagraph (A)(v) to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officer who is responsible for inspecting such conveyance or container; (cc) receiving intelligence from the National Targeting Center regarding tactics, techniques, and procedures being used at ports of entry and in the border environment by malign actors to facilitate the unlawful entry or exit of contraband, persons, or illicitly concealed merchandise such as illicit drugs or terrorist weapons; and (dd) reporting new information to the National Targeting Center regarding tactics, techniques, and procedures being used at ports of entry and in the border environment by malign actors to facilitate the unlawful entry or exit of contraband, persons, or concealed merchandise such as illicit drugs or terrorist weapons. (II) Rule of construction A U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officer shall retain the discretion and final decision-making authority to release conveyances or cargo for entry or exit or to refer such conveyance or cargo for further inspection. (C) Training requirements All Image Technicians and Supervisory Image Technicians shall receive annual training and additional ad hoc training, to the extent necessary based on current trends, regarding— (i) privacy, and civil rights and civil liberties, including the protections against unreasonable searches and seizures afforded by the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution; (ii) analyzing images generated by non-intrusive inspection technologies or any successor technologies deployed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection; (iii) identifying commodities and merchandise in images generated by non-intrusive inspection technologies or any successor technologies deployed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection; (iv) identifying contraband, persons who are seeking to unlawfully enter or exit United States, or illicitly concealed merchandise such as illicit drugs or terrorist weapons in images generated by non-intrusive technologies or any successor technologies deployed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection; (v) tactics, techniques, and procedures being used at ports of entry and in the border environment by malign actors to facilitate the unlawful entry or exit of contraband, persons, or concealed merchandise such as illicit drugs or terrorist weapons; and (vi) any other training that the Commissioner of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection determines to be relevant to the duties described in subparagraphs (B) or (D) of this subsection. (D) Annual assessment All Image Technicians and Supervisory Image Technicians shall receive annual testing with respect to their— (i) accuracy in image analysis; (ii) timeliness in image analysis; and (iii) ability to ascertain tactics, techniques, and procedures being used at ports of entry and in the border environment by malign actors to facilitate the unlawful entry or exit of contraband, persons, or illicitly concealed merchandise such as illicit drugs or terrorist weapons. . 3. Workforce staffing model (a) Development Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection shall develop a workforce staffing model for Image Technicians and Supervisory Image Technicians described in section 211(g)(6) of the Homeland Security Act of 2002, as amended by section 2, based upon— (1) the deployment of non-intrusive inspection technologies at ports of entry and international rail crossings; (2) border traffic patterns; and (3) scanning goals at each port of entry and international rail crossing. (b) Validation Not later than 6 months after the completion of the workforce staffing model described in subsection (a), the Comptroller General of the United States shall validate such workforce staffing model and transmit notification of such validation to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on Homeland Security of the House of Representatives. 4. Reporting requirements Upon completion of the validation of the workforce staffing model pursuant to section 3(b), and quarterly thereafter, the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, in consultation with the Executive Assistant Commissioner, shall submit a report to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on Homeland Security of the House of Representatives that identifies— (1) the number of Image Technicians and Supervisory Image Technicians hired during the reporting period; (2) the number of Image Technicians and Supervisory Image Technicians currently employed by the Office of Field Operations, disaggregated by port of entry or sector; (3) the daily average number of images scanned by each Image Technician; (4) training methodologies utilized to train Image Technicians and Supervisory Image Technicians; (5) assessment passage rates of Image Technicians and Supervisory Image Technicians; and (6) the apparent impact of Image Technicians and Supervisory Image Technicians on interdiction rates at ports of entry and international rail crossings at which Image Technicians or Supervisory Image Technicians are stationed or from which Image Technicians or Supervisory Image Technicians review images, including— (A) throughput increases or decreases at such ports of entry and international rail crossings; (B) increases or decreases in waiting times at such ports of entry and international rail crossings; (C) average wait times at such ports of entry and international rail crossings; and (D) increases or decreases of seizures of contraband, persons seeking to unlawfully enter or exit the United States, or illicitly concealed merchandise such as illicit drugs or terrorist weapons, broken down by type of seizure and port of entry or international rail crossing.

Summary: Border Enforcement, Security, and Trade (BEST) Facilitation Act of 2023 This bill establishes positions within U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to review inspection images of vehicles and cargo entering or exiting the United States. Specifically, the bill establishes the position of image technician within the CBP Office of Field Operations. An image technician must (1) review nonintrusive inspection images of vehicles and cargo entering or exiting the United States; (2) assess whether there are indications that such vehicles and cargo contain contraband, illicitly concealed merchandise (e.g., drugs and weapons), or persons seeking to unlawfully enter the United States; and (3) recommend suspicious vehicles and cargo for further inspection by a CBP officer. The bill also establishes the position of supervisory image technician with additional responsibilities, including receiving and reporting intelligence to the National Targeting Center about techniques used by malign actors to transport contraband, illicitly concealed merchandise, and persons seeking to unlawfully enter the United States. A CBP officer shall retain the discretion and final decision-making authority on whether to release a vehicle or cargo or refer the vehicle or cargo for further inspection. The bill establishes annual training requirements for both image technician and supervisory image technician positions, including training on privacy and civil liberties and how to analyze inspection images. Within a year of this bill's enactment, CBP must develop a workforce staffing model for these positions. The Government Accountability Office must validate the model within six months of the model's completion.