(b) EXTENT.—The waiver authority under subsection 
(c) of section 102 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and 
Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. 1103 
note), as amended by section 4 of this Act, shall extend 
to activities carried out pursuant to subsection (a). 
SEC. 16. BORDER PATROL STRATEGIC PLAN. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than one year after the 
date of enactment of this section and every five years 
thereafter, the Secretary, acting through the Chief of the 
U.S. Border Patrol, shall issue a Border Patrol Strategic 
Plan (referred to in this section as the ‘‘plan’’) to enhance 
the security of the international borders of the United 
States. 
(b) ELEMENTS.—The plan shall include the fol-
lowing: 
(1) A consideration of Border Patrol Capability 
Gap Analysis reporting, Border Security Improve-
ment Plans, and any other strategic document au-
thored by the U.S. Border Patrol to address security 
gaps with respect to ports of entry, including efforts 
to mitigate threats identified in such analyses, plans, 
and documents. 
(2) Information relating to the dissemination of 
information relating to border security or border 
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threats with respect to the efforts of the Department 
and other appropriate Federal agencies. 
(3) Information relating to efforts by U.S. Bor-
der Patrol to— 
(A) increase situational awareness, includ-
ing— 
(i) surveillance capabilities, such as 
capabilities developed or utilized by the 
Department of Defense, and any appro-
priate technology determined to be excess 
by the Department of Defense; and 
(ii) the use of manned aircraft and 
unmanned aircraft systems; 
(B) detect and prevent terrorists and in-
struments of terrorism from entering the 
United States; 
(C) detect, interdict, and disrupt human 
smuggling, human trafficking, drug trafficking 
and other illicit cross-border activity; 
(D) focus intelligence collection to disrupt 
transnational criminal organizations outside of 
the international and maritime borders of the 
United States; and 
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(E) ensure that any new border security 
technology can be operationally integrated with 
existing technologies in use by the Department. 
(4) Information relating to initiatives of the De-
partment with respect to operational coordination, 
including any relevant task forces of the Depart-
ment. 
(5) Information gathered from the lessons 
learned by the deployments of the National Guard to 
the southern border of the United States. 
(6) A description of cooperative agreements re-
lating to information sharing with State, local, Trib-
al, territorial, and other Federal law enforcement 
agencies that have jurisdiction on the border. 
(7) Information relating to border security in-
formation received from— 
(A) State, local, Tribal, territorial, and 
other Federal law enforcement agencies that 
have jurisdiction on the border or in the mari-
time environment; and 
(B) border community stakeholders, in-
cluding representatives from— 
(i) border agricultural and ranching 
organizations; and 
(ii) business and civic organizations. 
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(8) Information relating to the staffing require-
ments with respect to border security for the De-
partment. 
(9) A prioritized list of Department research 
and development objectives to enhance the security 
of the southern border. 
(10) An assessment of training programs, in-
cluding such programs relating to— 
(A) identifying and detecting fraudulent 
documents; 
(B) understanding the scope of CBP en-
forcement authorities and appropriate use of 
force policies; and 
(C) screening, identifying, and addressing 
vulnerable populations, such as children and 
victims of human trafficking. 
SEC. 17. HOMELAND SECURITY INVESTIGATIONS INNOVA-
TION LAB. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Subtitle E of title IV of the 
Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 231 et seq.) 
is amended by adding at the end the following new section: 
‘‘SEC. 463. INNOVATION LAB. 
‘‘(a) ESTABLISHMENT.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—There is established within 
the Department a program to be known as the 
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‘Homeland Security Investigations Innovation Lab’ 
(referred to in this section as the ‘Innovation Lab’). 
‘‘(2) ASSISTANT
DIRECTOR.—The Innovation 
Lab shall be headed by an Assistant Director, who 
shall be appointed by the Executive Associate Direc-
tor of United States Immigration and Customs En-
forcement, Homeland Security Investigations. 
‘‘(b) PURPOSE.—The purpose of the Innovation Lab 
shall be to improve investigative efficiency and mission- 
critical outcomes by enhancing and streamlining data 
processing, agility, assessment, visualization, and analysis 
of homeland security data, using innovative and emerging 
technologies and best practices for design principles. Inno-
vation Lab efforts shall be informed by designated field 
agents and analysts with relevant experience. 
‘‘(c) CO-LOCATION.—The Secretary shall, if prac-
ticable, co-locate Innovation Lab personnel and office 
space with other existing assets of— 
‘‘(1) the Department, where possible; or 
‘‘(2) Federal facilities, where appropriate. 
‘‘(d) COMPOSITION.—The Innovation Lab shall be 
comprised of personnel from the following: 
‘‘(1) Homeland Security Investigations of U.S. 
Immigration and Customs Enforcement. 
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‘‘(2) Other appropriate agencies as determined 
by the Secretary. 
‘‘(3) The private sector (through advisory part-
nerships), including developers with specializations 
in innovative and emerging technology, backend ar-
chitecture, or user interface design. 
‘‘(4) Academic institutions (through advisory 
partnerships), including members from the Depart-
ment of Homeland Security Centers of Excellence. 
‘‘(e) PRIORITIZATION.—The Innovation Lab shall 
prioritize new projects based on communicated investiga-
tive challenges experienced by each Homeland Security In-
vestigations field office. Such communication may be in-
corporated in existing annual threat analyses conducted 
by Homeland Security Investigations. 
‘‘(f) NONAPPLICABILITY
OF FACA.—The Federal 
Advisory Committee Act (5 U.S.C. App.) shall not apply 
to the Innovation Lab. 
‘‘(g) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 
is authorized to be appropriated $24,700,000 for fiscal 
year 2022 and $27,700,000 for fiscal year 2023 to carry 
out this section.’’. 
(b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of contents 
in section 1(b) of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 is 
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amended by inserting after the item relating to section 
462 the following new item: 
‘‘Sec. 463. Innovation lab.’’. 
SEC. 18. INTEGRATED BORDER ENFORCEMENT TEAMS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Subtitle D of title IV of the 
Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 231 et seq.) 
is amended by adding at the end the following new section: 
‘‘SEC. 447. INTEGRATED BORDER ENFORCEMENT TEAMS. 
‘‘(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—There is established within 
the Department a program to be known as the Integrated 
Border Enforcement Team program (referred to in this 
section as ‘IBET’) for the purposes described in sub-
section (b). 
‘‘(b) PURPOSES.—The purposes described in this 
subsection are the following: 
‘‘(1) Enhance cooperation between the United 
States and Canada with respect to border security. 
‘‘(2) Enhance security between designated ports 
of entry. 
‘‘(3) Detect, investigate, prevent, and respond 
to terrorism, transnational criminal organizations, 
and other violations of law related to border secu-
rity. 
‘‘(4) Facilitate collaboration among components 
and offices within the Department and international 
partners. 
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‘‘(5) Execute coordinated activities in further-
ance of border security and homeland security. 
‘‘(6) Enhance information sharing, including 
the dissemination of homeland security information 
among such components and offices of the Depart-
ment and international partners. 
‘‘(c) 
COMPOSITION
AND
ESTABLISHMENT
OF 
UNITS.— 
‘‘(1) COMPOSITION.—IBET units may be com-
posed of personnel from the following: 
‘‘(A) U.S. Customs and Border Protection. 
‘‘(B) U.S. Immigration and Customs En-
forcement, led by Homeland Security Investiga-
tions. 
‘‘(C) Other Department personnel, as ap-
propriate. 
‘‘(D) Other Federal, State, local, Tribal, 
and foreign law enforcement agencies, as appro-
priate. 
‘‘(E) Other appropriate personnel at the 
discretion of the Secretary. 
‘‘(2) ESTABLISHMENT OF UNITS.— 
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary may es-
tablish IBET units in regions in which such 
units can contribute to the purpose of IBET. 
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‘‘(B) ASSESSMENT.—Prior to establishing 
an IBET unit pursuant to subparagraph (A), 
the Secretary shall assess the establishment of 
such unit in a particular region with the fol-
lowing criteria: 
‘‘(i) The likelihood that the establish-
ment of such unit in such region would sig-
nificantly mitigate cross-border threats, in-
cluding 
such 
threats 
posed 
by 
transnational criminal organizations and 
terrorist groups. 
‘‘(ii) The availability of Federal, 
State, local, Tribal, and foreign law en-
forcement resources to participate in such 
unit. 
‘‘(iii) Whether the establishment of 
such unit would duplicate the efforts of ex-
isting interagency task forces or centers 
within such region, including the Border 
Enforcement Security Task Force estab-
lished under section 432. 
‘‘(d) OPERATION.—After establishing an IBET unit 
pursuant to paragraph (2) of subsection (c), the Secretary 
may— 
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‘‘(1) direct the assignment of Federal personnel 
to such unit; 
‘‘(2) take other actions to assist Federal, State, 
local, and Tribal entities to participate in such unit, 
including providing financial assistance for oper-
ational, administrative, and technological costs asso-
ciated with such participation; 
‘‘(3) direct the development of policy and guid-
ance necessary to identify, assess, and integrate the 
available partner resources in relevant border sector 
security assessments and resource planning docu-
ments; 
‘‘(4) establish targets and performance meas-
ures for such unit; and 
‘‘(5) direct leadership of such unit to monitor 
the progress with respect to such targets and per-
formance measures. 
‘‘(e) COORDINATION.—The Secretary shall coordinate 
IBET activities with other similar border security and 
antiterrorism programs within the Department in accord-
ance with the strategic objectives of the Cross-Border Law 
Enforcement Advisory Committee. 
‘‘(f) MEMORANDA OF UNDERSTANDING.—The Sec-
retary may enter into memoranda of understanding with 
appropriate representatives of the entities specified in 
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paragraph (1) of subsection (c), as necessary, to carry out 
this section. 
‘‘(g) REPORT.—Not later than 180 days after the 
date on which IBET is established and biannually there-
after for the following six years, the Secretary shall submit 
to the Committee on Homeland Security of the House of 
Representatives and the Committee on Homeland Security 
and Governmental Affairs of the Senate a report that— 
‘‘(1) describes the effectiveness of IBET units 
in fulfilling the purposes specified in subsection (b); 
‘‘(2) identifies challenges on the sustainment of 
cross-border IBET operations, including challenges 
faced by international partners, and planned correc-
tive actions; 
‘‘(3) identifies costs associated with IBET units 
disaggregated by relevant categories designated at 
the discretion of the Secretary; 
‘‘(4) identifies ways to support joint training 
for IBET stakeholder agencies and radio interoper-
ability to allow for secure cross-border radio commu-
nications; and 
‘‘(5) identifies and assesses ways IBET, Border 
Tunnel Task Forces, Border Enforcement Security 
Task Forces, and the Integrated Cross-Border Mari-
time Law Enforcement Operation Program can bet-
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