I 
116TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1292 
To amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to require border community 
stakeholder consultation before the Secretary of Homeland Security may 
construct, install, deploy, operate, or maintain additional physical bar-
riers, tactical infrastructure, or technology between ports of entry along 
the land border with Mexico, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 14, 2019 
Mr. VELA (for himself and Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi) introduced the 
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Homeland Security 
A BILL 
To amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to require 
border community stakeholder consultation before the 
Secretary of Homeland Security may construct, install, 
deploy, operate, or maintain additional physical barriers, 
tactical infrastructure, or technology between ports of 
entry along the land border with Mexico, and for other 
purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Border Community 
Input in Border Security Act’’. 
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SEC. 2. BORDER COMMUNITY STAKEHOLDER CONSULTA-
TION. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Subtitle H of title VIII of the 
Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 451 et seq.) 
is amended by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘SEC. 890B. BORDER COMMUNITY STAKEHOLDER CON-
SULTATION. 
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding section 102 of 
the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsi-
bility Act of 1996, the Secretary may not construct, in-
stall, deploy, operate, or maintain additional physical bar-
riers, tactical infrastructure, or technology (including the 
removal of obstacles for such purpose) between ports of 
entry in a Border Patrol sector along the land border with 
Mexico until the Secretary publishes in the Federal Reg-
ister a final mitigation plan with respect to such sector 
to minimize in such sector the impact on the economic, 
environmental, ecological, historical, cultural, commercial, 
or other quality of life factors for the communities and 
residents located near the sites at which any such physical 
barriers, tactical infrastructure, or technology are to be 
constructed, installed, deployed, operated, or maintained 
(or obstacles are to be removed), as the case may be. Such 
final mitigation plan shall be developed in accordance with 
this section. 
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‘‘(b) INITIAL MITIGATION PLAN.—The Secretary 
shall publish on a publicly available website of the Depart-
ment an announcement regarding any removal, construc-
tion, installation, deployment, operation, or maintenance 
described in subsection (a). Such announcement shall— 
‘‘(1) explain the basis for the Secretary’s deter-
mination that any such removal, construction, instal-
lation, deployment, operation, or maintenance, as 
the case may be, is the most practical and effective 
method to achieve situational awareness and oper-
ational control at the site in the Border Patrol sec-
tor at issue along such border; 
‘‘(2) include, with respect to any such removal, 
construction, installation, deployment, operation, or 
maintenance, an initial mitigation plan to minimize 
the impact on the economic, environmental, ecologi-
cal, historical, cultural, commercial, or other quality 
of life factors for border community stakeholders; 
‘‘(3) provide an opportunity for written feed-
back and input from border community stake-
holders; and 
‘‘(4) include the dates, times, and places for at 
least two public meetings in locations within 20 
miles of each site for which the Secretary makes a 
determination pursuant to paragraph (1) for the 
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