The Bush Administration has announced its proposed budget for the 2004 fiscal year. The budget includes allocations for the new Department of Homeland Security which will include in 2004 the newly absorbed Immigration and Naturalization Service. As we have reported over the past year, the INS will be divided into two separate agencies within DHS - one an enforcement agency and one a services agency. The following are some of the funding initiatives highlighted by DHS for 2004:
- $1.8 billion for Citizen and Immigration Services, an increase of $143 million (8.6 percent) over the 2003 level, to support further improvements in application processing as well as the projected application volume.
- the Administration requested again $500 million to fund an initiative to reduce backlogs for citizenship and green card applications to six months or less for the estimated five million people waiting on applications to be approved by the INS. $100 million of the total is being allocated for fiscal 2004 as part of a $235 million budget for the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, the new immigration services agency.
- $18.1 billion for Border and Transportation Security (BTS) activities, an increase of $9 billion (nearly 100 percent) over the 2002 enacted level. After accounting for start-up and one-time costs related to securing the nation’s airports, the 2004 level supports an increase of about $400 million above the 2003 level.
- about $530 million is requested to support immigration investigations.
- an enhancement of the Administration’s “smart borders” initiative that is intended to identify threats before they get near our borders while continuing to facilitate trade. This includes $273 million for infrastructure and technology improvements.
- a continuation of the Administration’s entry-exit initiative that will track both the entry and exit of visitors to the United States. The 2004 Budget requests an additional $100 million for this initiative for a total of $860 million from 2002 to 2004.
- over $550 million is requested to enforce the customs laws, including investigative activities such as fraud, forced labor, trade agreement investigations, smuggling and illegal transshipment, and vehicle and cargo theft.
The budget plan also explains how enforcement activities will work within DHS. There will be two enforcement bureaus under the Border and Transportation Security umbrella which will be headed by former Congressman and DEA chief Asa Hutchinson. According to the DHS, the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (BCBP) will focus on security at and between the ports-of-entry along the border. The BCBP includes inspection and other border-related resources and functions of the U.S. Customs Service, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), including the Border Patrol, and the inspection functions of the Agricultural Quarantine Inspection program
Under the DHS plan, the new Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (BICE) will enforce the full range of immigration and customs laws within the United States and protect specified federal buildings. This is a change from the current system where the enforcement function at INS is focused exclusively on immigration matters. BICE is responsible for locating and removing aliens who are in the U. S. illegally and protecting the jobs of those who are legally eligible for them by inspecting places of employment for undocumented workers. BICE will maintain a nationwide anti-smuggling program and enforce customs laws including those against money laundering and child pornography. The BICE includes investigative and other enforcement resources and functions of the U.S. Customs Service, the INS, and the Federal Protective Service.
Aside from the two enforcement bureaus, Border and Transportation Security will also manage the visa issuance process at consulates. The budget plan describes the unusual relationship that will take place between the Department of State and DHS regarding the issuance of visas at consular posts around the world. Under the new plan, DHS will "have legal authority" over the issuance and denial of visas. The State Department will "manage" the activities of consular officers and it too will have the power to deny visas based on foreign policy interests. But DHS will apparently have the right to veto a visa approval if it so chooses.
Immigration advocates were successful in convincing DHS to keep immigration services in a separate chain of command from immigration enforcement. The new Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) will now handle the services side of the INS.
The DHS budget plan mentions that the agency is "committed to greatly improving immigration benefits to the more than seven million annual applicants. DHS will build and maintain an immigration services system that provides immigration information and benefits in timely, accurate, consistent, courteous, and professional manner."
The DHS is reiterating its commitment to six month turnaround times on naturalization and green card applications. DHS' new services bureau says it will get to this result with a three pronged initiative:
- Achieving a high-level of performance by establishing a clear, concrete performance milestones and actively monitoring process towards these milestones;
- Transforming business practices by implementing significant information technology improvements and identifying improvements to change the current way of doing business; and
- Ensuring integrity by establishing comprehensive quality assurance measures.
While the Department of Justice has many fewer responsibilities for immigration with the move of the INS to the Department of Homeland Security, the department still has responsibility for prosecuting immigration cases. In its budget request for FY 2004, the DOJ has requested a 6.3% increase in spending which includes 30 new positions in Immigration Litigation "to handle high-profile immigration cases that implicate the integrity of the September 11th investigation and the federal government's response."
