Transcripts For CSPAN3 Federal Officials Testify On Drug Cartels And Border Security 20170315

Subcommittee on maritime border. We need clone snoumptourselves. I was in the Armed Services meeting. Very important. And to examine the threat posed by drug cartels and tra transorganizations. Id like to welcome the newest member from our subcommittee, the gentleman from florida, mr. Rutherford. Let me be clear from the outset i hope over the course this congress we can engage in thoughtful and productive conversations that lead to legislative relationships that help secure our homeland. We want to drill down on the threat that an unsecure border poses to our fellow americans the focus of our conversation today and the next leader from the joint task forces authorized oo by the last congress to combat this threat. Protect our borders is a multifacfaceted effort. The job falls to primarily u. S. Border patrol while the job of the u. S. Coast guard is secure maritime border. And securing more than 300 ports of entry. And air and Marine Operations carries out air and Marine Maritime environments to interdict unlawful people and cargo from approaching our borders and supporting National Security through its investigatory authorities and responsibilities. These are not simple or easy ta tasks. Rugged deserts, high canyons and more than 1,000 miles of river. And vast ocean patrolled by a limited number of assets and providing cartels with enormous territories to conduct their activities. Congress has provided millions of dollars to shore up our defenses and we have person yell deployed to keep the nation safe. Despite our best efforts we have seemingly made little progress over the last few years to secure the border. Most recent reports and testimony suggests between our ports of entry we are a little more than 50 effective from keeping people from crossing our border and continues unabated. On the other side of the border, mexican drug cartels reach a wide network. Cartel presence influence and power throughout mexico is you pick to us. Corruption endemic and they often find theirselves illequipped to handle the vast amount of cartel activity. Smuggling people in is a billion dollar business, make as much money possible with eel lift products and people across the border of the United States. Obscene profits incentivize cartels to be entrepreneurial and innovative to smuggle their elicit cargo. We know they conduct extensive activity against our agents and place spotters or scalps on hilltops to hide the drug lords and other protection assets. Sophistication deep tunnels and rail cars to expedite the movement of drugs has also been used and we have seen 0 a proliferation of unorthodox smuggling, canon is in my district to shoot hundreds of thousands of drugs over the fences and barriers, ultra light aircraft under the cover of d k darkness to fly over the border and returning to undetected mexico. In my district, authorities broke up a complicated smuggling ring. They specialized in drivethrough operations with convoys and thousands of pounds of drugs across remote parts of the border and was not an amateur operation by any means, to the contrary a sophisticated enterprise to thwart Law Enforcement at every term. This is the nature of the adversary along the border. 2nd was once one of the most trafficked but with additional barriers and manpower brought the situation under control. Because the cartels are nimble, they responded with open vessels to push the drug lords farther and farther off the coast of california, im sure we will hear about it from you today and making it more difficult to track and interdict and painting submersibles to blend win the ocean and bringing in multicocaine loads to mexico. Ultimate destination is cities and towns across the nation. We have to be cleareyed on the sophisticated ader ver saris. We will not sit identically by while we adjust our strategy and that will threaten their busy model. They will innovate like they always do if we do not counter the cartel movement. I look forward to the discussion ahead. I ask unanimous consent the gentleman from new york be permitted to be at the hearing. No objection, so ordered. Thank you, chair woman, for calling this very important hearing, as we discussed. This is one of area we can agree many of us can Work Together to achieve our ultimate goal, to do as much as we can to impact the negative work the cartels do in south america and United States and at the same time, do what we can to take drugs off the seats. I would like to introduce our newest member to the committee. Congressman garcia represents californias 46th Congressional District and most recently served in the state senate. Congresswoman val den, previously served as chief of the Orlando Police department, the first woman to hold that position. An experienced attorney representing the 44th Congressional District which includes the port of los angeles. Id also like to recognize my colleague, mr. Richmond, our Senior Member in the committee, joining us on the subcommittee for the first time. I look forward to working with all of you in the combing months because each of you bring a unique perspective and expertise to this subcommittee. The subject of our hearing today is one of particular interest to me given like congresswoman mcsally i represent a border district in texas. The state across from my Congressional District has been coping with serious Security Issues due to cartel violence. In fact, this coming thursday, my mexican colleagues at the federal level will be launching a social media effort to help promote the idea of bringing peace to the state. Mexican cartels have fought for control of smuggling corridors, communities on the mexican side have seen record levels of drug related homicides and violence. The threat is not confined to our southern border, cartels use networks to target elicit drugs and contraband. The security and prosperity of all of our districts and so many communities across the nation depend in part to security and prosperity across the border. I want to continue to be supp t supportive of United States efforts to that end. I am also appreciative of secretary kellys recent comm t comments with respect to what he would like to do to address the issue of demand in this country. I hope to hear from you today about how we are countering with Central America and mexico to combat National Criminal organizations and enhance Border Security. I would ask all our witnesses to speak to the subcommittee how the threat has evolved and changed over time, what need to address this threat and what we as members of congress can do to support your efforts and our neighbors and our communities are counting on us to get this right. Madam chair thank you for bringing this hearing and i look forward to a Productive Congress with you and all the members of the subcommittee. I yield back the balance of my time. Other members of the committee are reminded Opening Statement mays be submitted for the record. Were pleased to be joined by four of distinguished witnesses. Vi from guidance and resources and address the coast guards priorities and a specific area commander in the middle east and Advisory Mission for the missionary commander. And for the tucson sector and hes responsible for impleme implementing strategic guidance from joint Task Force West and u. S. Customs and Border Protection and command and coordinator of operational functions in the state of arizona. In addition to those roles and responsibilities, commander beson has command of the strategic operation and 420 personnel, many of which are in my district. Mr. Matthew allen is the assistant director for investigative programs for Homeland Security investigations within the u. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Mr. Allen is responsible for programmatic oversight of development and execution of operational initiatives. Mr. Allen previously served as special agent in charge in arizona and had the full speck trim off i. C. E. And activities and led personnel assigned to the state. And Deputy Assistant secretary luis arreaga, department of state and bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement affairs. And control of Law Enforcement and rule of law in the western hemisphere. Prior to this appointment. Ambassador arreaga served as ambassador of iceland from 2010 to 2013. The witnesss full statements will appear in the record and now witnerecognizes you to test. Thank you for the opportunity to testify on the coast guards role in criminal organizations and the continued threat it poses to the homeland. Im particularly pleased to testify alongside our most important partners. And i would like to thank them for their leadership in this effort. Before i continue, i would draw your attention to the exhibit, north america and south america. When im talking about the transit zone talking about that area between south america, Central America and southern mexico. We continue to face a specific threat from transNational Criminal networks whose drug transit routes lead to the southern approaches of the United States. Kaurced protects the maritime border not just here at home but off the coast of south and Central America as part of our layered security strategy. As secretary kelly stated a few days ago, the defense of the southwest border starts about 1500 miles south of there. When transNational Criminal organizations are violent, they harm economies and threaten citizens and engage in all matters of elicit activity and destabilize latin america. The wide spread violence they employ has reach eed epidemic levels and spread to migrants who attempt to illegally enter the United States. As one of the nations five armed forces and the only one with broad Law Enforcement authority the coast guard is positioned to attack these criminal networks where theyre most vulnerable at sea. They consist of a cutter, airborne use of force helicopter and high speed boats and highly trained boarding teams. We seize multiton loads of drugs at sea before theyre broken up and cause devastation each step of their journey making their way to north america. We leverage only 42 maritime Law Enforcement Bilateral Agreements fi 25 in the hemisphere here and we are the only ones to enforce the statutes with our neighbors. Our coast guard and Partner Agencies interdicted more cocaine in 2016 than all the land and across our country by all state and locals come bind. We get it in bulk quantities. Sometimes in the thousands of kilos and by doing so we push the border south of the nation to significantly impact the transNational Criminal organizations. Beyond demonstrating this the cocaine and elicit trafficking unfortunately are on the rise. Resource constraints and lack of capable surface assets allow the u. S. Coast guard to only attack or target 30 of the known cases. We have good intelligence, high confidence intelligence as a result of lack of resources last year, we were prevented from getting after 580 known smuggling events and those shipments made their way on north. Unfortunately, the other significant National Security demands on our great navy now preclude their participation in this area of operations and as testimony before the committee, secretary kelly noted there hasnt been a significant sustained Navy Presence in the eastern pacific for almost four years. In that time, our coast guard has doubled down our presence in the region and we are your armed force in the maritime approach to the u. S. We continue to look for ways to increase our offshore cutter presence and we dont have the assets to address all the intelligence we have. For that reason recapitalizing our medium endurance fleet with the offshore cutter is a must to meet mission demand. We appreciate the support thus far and continued support from this congress will be essential as we move to commission our first offshore patrol cutter in 2021. These new assets will make us more effective. Like other armed forces were facing significant readiness challenge with infrastructure and strained workforce. Like our fellow chief commandant said, he believes it will stay this way as long as the budget control act is in effect. We have an outstanding and dedicated group of professional women and men as evidenced by the 201 metric tons of cocaine we seized in 2016. A kaurced reco coast guard re. Thank you for all you do and to testify and all due for the men and women in the court. I look forward to testifying. Thank you. Commander beson. Good morning. Thank you for the opportunity to appear today on behalf of u. S. Customs and Border Protection to discuss the evolving drug smuggling tactics and techniques used by transNational Criminal organizations and how cbp is working to address this threat and secure our nations borders. I began my career as a Border Patrol agent in 1985. In my 30 years i have seen it change from barbed wire fence and nationwide work force of a few thousand Border Patrol agents to today 600 miles of fencing and almost 20,000 Border Patrol agents on duty. The border has changed and become more complex. Over the course of my career i have seen the department of Homeland Security funding increases and decreases and committed evolution of criminals who seek to exploit our borders. I have also seen cbp and legacy offices that make up cbp work with congress to improve the border environment. Resources, technology, tactical infrastructure have shaped the border we see today. We have realized greater Situational Awareness and reduction of activity from a high in fiscal year 2000 to just over 400 arrests last fiscal year. Throughout my career i have teen tcos exhibit unending resolve to exploit the border for their own gain. They have used nimble and illegal tactics to cross our border and smuggle in people and contraband. Tcos activate throughout the border environment including at the ports of entry and various domain, such as land, air and sea. Cbp has combat these illegal activities but they continue to circumvent it. Drug smuggling is a part of Border Enterprises and today they smuggle by foot, vehicle, air, tunneling and even through the use of projectile type systems. Tcos also rely on scouting, countersurveillance and Logistical Support to further their illegal drug smuggling operati operations. While it still occurs, cbp continues to take steps comb combatting their efforts. In fiscal year 2013 they deceased or disrupted more than 4,000 pounds of narcotics. They have disrupted the manner tcos attempt to smuggle drugs. Prior to fencing and Technology Deployment is in the tucson sector area of operations over 1,000 vehicle drivethroughs were recorded in 2006 and last year, only 18 such events recorded. While ramping and drivethroughs still occur, we have diminished the probability of their success and shaped these elicit operati operations. What i have seen in over 30 years of Law Enforcement, tcos remain insistent to do cross bored ir activity. I have seen Law Enforcement partners make progress in security of our borders as a result of investments over the years in our Border Security and blood, sweat and tears of men and women engage in the daily battles to secure our borders. With continued support from congress, cbp will continue to refine and enhance the effectiveness of detection and in terdiction capabilities. While ctos may be intent in smuggling operation, cbp is intent on safe guardi ining the borders of this country. Distinguished members of this subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today and i look forward to your questions. Thank you, commander beeson. Chair recognizes mr. Allen for five minutes. Good morning. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the threats posed by transNational Criminal organizations and Customs Enforcement to identify, target, investigate and disrupt and dismantle these criminal elem t elements. Today, i will provide isis perspective we face on the southwest border, approaches that lead up to our border and what we do to address tcos and smuggling activities and controversy once it arrived to our bored irs and the interior of the United States. I brought a troubling graphic of the areas of influence of the major transNational Criminal organizations in the United States and i want to thank the Drug Administration enforcement for sharing that today. Notably the cartels that stretch across the southwest border operating through networks and loose affiliations in smaller organizations across the United States. As many of you know first hand the southwest border is a very diverse environment with maritime and land borders where they have adapted their methods and cargo environment. From an operational point of view, this means theres not a single tactic or technology that will succeed eliminating the smuggling threat on the southwest border. To give you an idea of the challenges we collectively face, its important to talk about heroin, fenn tin noll and cocaine and imagine. Mexican heroin is the most used in the United States because it can be smoked or snorted intravenously. They have quickly added fentanyl in response to the explosion of opium and they have contraband loads and heroin and methamphetamine. Mexico was a Transit Company for south america source of cocaine seized at the ports of entry in modified compartments of privately owned vehicles or deeply concealed in cargo shipme shipments. The amount of methamphetamine is produced in mexico from precursor chemicals from asia. It is seized in modified compartments of personal vehicle and the second is by pedestrians. Marijuana cultivated by mexican cartels makes mexico the largest supplier to the u. S. Drug market. It is seized as it is being smuggled between the ports of entry. When marijuana is seized at u. S. Ports of entry, it is most often sealed on commercial cargo. Recognizing the border is different, the cartels adapt their smuggling efforts to suit a specific area blending into traffic in a given area to avoid Law Enforcement attention. The cartels conduct surveillance on Law Enforcement operations along the border principally focusing on u. S. Border Law Enforcement operations. As the department changes its tactics and techniques or introduced new technology or infrastructure they adopt operations to undermine our Border Security efforts. One of the large egs factors is public corruption in mexico and the United States. The cartels rely on core rupt u. S. And mexican officials to expose the u. S. Isis assigned 100 u. S. Special agents and 150 Intelligence Research agents to our south border offices. In addition, i. C. E. Leads to expose this criminal element and in the partnership in the fight against t krorkss, taking down the cartels top leadership recently guzman, aka el chapo demonstrates how they can effect cartel leadership. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today and your continued support of i. C. E. And its Law Enforcement mission. I. C. E. Is committed to stemming Law Enforcement communication through the efforts i explained today. Thank you. The chair recognizes chairman. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you from the department of states efforts to transpo combat organized crime. With your permission, i have a formal statement id like to submit for the record. Transnational crime undermines our Border Security, inflicts harm in our communities and threatens the rule of law. The bureau of National Narcotics Law Enforcement inl i have the opportunity to be on, leads us overs overseas. We do that to strengthen the capacity of partner governments criminal justice system. The fact is we need strong and effective partners overseas to combat narcotics and production and trafficking. We advance our efforts through four partnerships. The regional initiative, caribbean base initiative and our Long Standing Partnership with colombia. Under the Maritime Initiative we are looking to strengthen the catch passty of mexican the capacity of mexican initiatives to uphold the rule of law and protect our shared border. Since 2007, the United States has delivered nearly 1 1. 6 billion in assistance. This includes inspection and detection equipment now deployed on mexicans border and training and equipping mexican officials to identify and dismantle drug laboratories and carry out complex investigations of organized crime. Our investments, and i emphasize this, have fosters unprecedented corroboration between u. S. And mexican authorities. From Central America, gangs are driving citizens to leave their home in search of safety, opportunity and Family Living abroad. Many travel through mexico in an attempt to reach the United States. Our programs at Central America help governments strengthen Border Security from gangs and human smugglers. In 2016, Central America Security Units many supported by u. S. Law enforcement agencies reported seizing over 116 metric tons of cocaine. On the corruption front, honduras fired nearly 2,000 corrupt officers while in guatemala the attorney general is bringing charges against come for er Law Enforcement officials. President ial 10 of the cocaine units destined for the United States and our programs train and equip Law Enforcement agencies in partner countries. In 2015, reported cocaine seizures in partner countries reached 24 metric ton, 122 increase over the previous years. Let me conclude with columbia the Worlds Largest producer of cocaine, approximately 90 of the amount seized in the United States. In light of the troubling increase since 2013 we know we need to deepen our cooperation with our colombian partners and they have intensified their in terdiction efforts. Cocaine seizures increased 20 in 2016. Being our steadfast partner since before 1999. We are confident this partnership will endure. Let me close by reiterate our commitment to continue working with our partner governments to protect our homeland. It must be said that achieving lasting change will be neither easy nor quick. We are encouraged by results today and remain confident a sustained investment will benefit the security of the United States. Chair woman mcsally and Ranking Member thank you. And i leak forward to questions. I will recognize myself for questions and since we started late i will let my vice chair go and ill go at the end. Thank you, chair woman and our esteemed sol leagues, thank you for the work you do. I recognize the difficulty of the tasks. Admiral, you talk about high confidence intelligence. What would you need to get that number to 100 . Sir, thank you for the question. I dont know well ever get to 200, but to raise it, its pretty straightforward, you need more coast guard cutters on the water and the package that goes with them, u. S. Of helicopter and patrolled airport. The numbers are 6. 0 cutter presence and usually we have four airborne use of force helicopt helicopters. Thats what were able to action 30 to raise it up, youd double that and make a pretty good dent. Thats why our offshore Patrol Program a recapitalizization is so important to that. Could you tell us how you were able to double your resources, how long would it take to actually make that operati operational . Once we put the resources in theater, the long pull is bui building these ships out. The first offshore cutters with support of congress we have it on contract and shell be commissioned in 2021, a fleet of 25. Theres more bills to pay on that and why we appreciate your support in advance. As soon as theyre commissioned we put them down range, thats our highest priority missionary, one of the highest. We have the folks, the people . They come with the ships and we would be recruiting those as the ships come online. Good copy. My sense is that when it comes to, lets call it the ground war, were having the opposite issue we have on the seas, where the level of intelligence thats coming out of the tcos and groups operating in mexico and the rest of Central America can be increased. Ive always said when you look at the 19 criminal organizations operating in mexico alone, were not making them a National Intelligence priority. Do you disagree with that assessment . Would you like to see more nsa collection and more cia collection . Chief beeson, ill let you go first. Thank you, congressman. We work with the Intelligence Community to get information. So my experience most recently has been as the chief of the tucson sector and commander of that task force in tucson. We have been able to synthesize, if thats the right word, the intelligence from the Intelligence Community and take action against it. We work very closely with Homeland Security investigations. They have personnel assigned to our facility where we handle that type of information. When theres an in terdiction, based on that type of information to do parallel construction and such we will hand that off to them, and they will take to it fruition with regard to the investigation. Were always looking for ways to improve on our intelligence capabilities and thats something we continue to work at, is to get better and better at the intelligence. Mr. Allen, what would be helpful to improve the intelligence collection . I would echo chief beesons comment, we work on a daily basis with the Intelligence Community. No one is going to turn down more assistance or information. I think our biggest challenge and what were seeing in our investigations we have the ic could really help us with is what i call Network Identification and identifying the networks out there. More and more i think the challenges we face the ability to kind of illuminate the network and figure out and connect people and events in y waway s we could use prosecution. I think theres always been a challenge in turning intelligence into evidence because in the end, our primary focus is criminal investigations and our goal is to present cases for prosecution. While its great to know, and theres a natural fine line difference between intelligence and evidence, and in our world, we need be able to turn intelligence into evidence. Good copy. Thank you. I yield back. The chair recognizes the r k Ranking Member vela for five minutes. Admiral, i want to point out your personnel have been tremendous since ive been on this committee. Theres nothing like seeing it for yourself and they consist t consistently reached out and show us what they do. I want to let you know we respect our newer members to the extent you can do the same thing in the regions they represent, it is a very helpful experience and thanks for everything you do. I think my first question is for chief beeson and mr. Arreaga, you comments to the aradfication efforts in colombia. Generally summarize where we are with respect to ratification efforts in colombia where we see cocaine production. Briefly comment on that as it pertains to poppy production in mexico. So the Border Patrol, customs and Border Protection, were working to interdict, narcotic, contraband smuggled across the border. Were not heavily involved in eradication, so will punt yeah. I was going to suggest that. Yes. On the issue of coco plantsings in colombia, there have been many since 2013. A number of factors, w. H. O. Report the colombian courts asked to use for the end of aerial eradication, one reason. Another important reason as our aerial eradication continues quite successfully the coco planters took countermeasures to plant in areas where it was made difficult and areas aerial aradcation was not allowed, some of the indigenous and mountain areas. And we believe that they encourage farmers to plant and anticipate there would be a Peace Process where coco farmers would be confiscated for eradicating their crops. Those are the reasons why there was an increase. Nonetheless the colombian authorities are committed to arad kate manually and voluntarily and were in conversations with them to figure out how we can support those efforts. Theres the fiscal part to produce cocaine. In the future, id like to explore that issue and compare eradication efforts in the other count countries, for example, mexico. I will move for my next question for mr. Allen, something perhaps deserving of a hearing in and of itself. Mr. Allen, my question is, how would you with respect to cooperative efforts with Law Enforcement in mexico, how would you state it is today and what would like to see in the future . The one word answer is good and i would expand on it by s saying growing. I talked earlier about our goal being criminal investigations and victcriminal prosecutions. The largest in the United States is actually in mexico, where we have the largest number of agents deployed internationally. I think if were going to be more effective we need to grow that presence and relationships we have with the Mexican Federal police, mexican customs and material that focuses on migration. We have a Good Relationship but we need to continue to work to grow it. Quickly, chief beeson, i notice the cinaloa cartel has quite a presence along the east coast. Can you tell us about that . How do they extend that deeply. Got to remember the button. Its through theees of networks. Theyre leveraging their networks transportation infrastructure. The chair will recognize other members of the subcommittee for questions in accordance of rules and practice and those coming in later will be recognized in order of arrival. And the chair recognizes the gentleman from florida. Thank you, madam chair and thank you, panel for being here today and thank you for all the service you have provided in the past and will in the future to keep our country safe. I want to shift the focus just a little bit, if i could. Admiral ray, weve talked a little bit about the drugs and harm that brings to our country but also the United States coast guard interdicted several migrants from former eastern block countries in fiscal year 15 and 16. Could you discuss its not just south Central Americans theyre smuggling into the United States but also people from other count countries. And in addition to that, could you address the potential of if Foreign Terrorists utilizing these cartels to utilize the domain to gain entrance to the u. S. And do us harm . Thank you, congressman rutherford and for your years of Law Enforcement service. Its an honor to take a question from you. The coast guard last year interdi interdicted thousands in the approaches to florida and a handful over on the west coast. It was a big year, the biggest year since 1994. Primarily cubans. With regards to special interest alien, countries associated with terrorism, small numbers in the maritime approaches right now. Less than 20 over the last couple of years. Not a great threat vector there at present. However, to address the real question, are these tra transNational Criminal organizations capable . No doubt in my mind, theyre sophisticated smuggling organizations that start in the southern reaches of our hemisphere and as the chief agraph irks address, work in new york city. I dont think they check passports before they pick people up. They will do anything for a prof profit. We havent seen anything right now. We must maintain vigilance on that and with that. With regard to people from other nations, we get them. Just last week we had a boat seized off the bahamas. It had a dozen Chinese People on board. The tails of 3450ig grant migr from all over the world to get to america, theres plenty of them. I think it highlights the fact brought up earlier about the gap created between our abilities now and recapitalizization of the fleet and your capabilities down the road, we have a gap there. One reason i want to salute, madam chairman, the United States navy, who made a Decision Just yesterday to relocate the m4c tritan program in jacksonville, a Mayport Naval station which will give us an unmanned airline capability i hope will be used to fill some of that gap created when the navy did away with their friget program that certainly increased the gap. I bring that up following up on mr. Hurds question. I know the president made it clear one of his Top Priorities will be rebuilding the navy to 30050 police ships but i believe this evidence should cloincludee coast guard. Many ships are very old. The valiant in jacksonville is 50 years old. One of those ships. I know you talked about this a little earlier, but how long will it be before we get those 25 . Is that that wasnt the 2019 you were talking about, correct . Yes, sir. Thank you for the question. The offshore patrol cutter we have under contract now, a multiyear contract and the first commissioned in 2021. In fact, almost all of them are older than the parents each the young men and women serving on. Thats a data point. We will be able to stretch the others out another 15 years until we get on board and why our offshore patrol cutter is important to get back in service. I certainly hope the tritan program will be of great assistance to you as well. Thank you. I yield back. We recognize mr. Korea for five minutes. Thank you. I appreciate you being here today. I represent southern california, a father of four children. To me, drugs and keeping that poison away from our children is onto priority. Ive been blessed, my children have avoided those scourges b s a lot of our neighbors have not. Drugs, something we can all agree on, stopping getting them to our communities. When i was state senator i chaired the california select committee, you begin to realize the tremendous huge Trading Partnership we have with mexico, the biggest or second biggest trading partner in the world. Ive always advocated for smart borders meanings you can check folks and merchandise to make sure things flow 134509ly and effectively and you stop the g activity. Vice admiral ray, you Say Something that bothered me, that you had against on 500 events. 500 events and you did not have the assets to stop them from possibly reaching our shores. I want to repeat the same question asked of you, what do you need and where . I look at that chart on the side, i look at those red lights. Given colombia is at peace with farc, i think those red lines will get thicker in the future . Where do you need those assets . In the u. S. Or where to stop all of that cocaine production from coming into our shores. Thank you, sir. Those assets would be based in the United States hopefully in one of your districts. They would sail from there and go anywhere we need them. Primarily right now where we need them and where they can be most effective is that area between south america and Central America. Thats a huge area, as big as the continental United States. Covering that is difficult. However, with the intelligence we have now, thats what lets us know whos out there. We know this on a given morning an do this on a 2424hour cycle. We know whos there and who we can get after. Of those we had 580 them we couldnt take a pass at them because we didnt have sufficient assets. I mentioned to congressman heard, by doubling down on the amount of assets we have this that transit zone, thats how you effect them. That would be your priority, sir, in terms of investment. You also mentioned that you have a tremendous working relationship or better working relationship with mexican government. Number of years ago i had the opportunity to go down to mexico city and look at one of their Central Intelligence monitoring stations where they were looking at almost every vehicle coming across their southern border. That information would be digitalized, sent to mexico city. I presume that was sent eventually to langley, virginia. My question is, what else do you need to do to increase, enhance our partnership with mexico to make sure these drugs dont reach your shores and borders . As i said and i think, you know, building the capacity of mexican agencies and increasing the rule of law in mexico is a key part of that. Our role is a liaison role and increasing our footprint in mexico and making sure that we can have good, pickup truck tro relationships. What do you need from us to do that . More people. The president s executive orders which calls for 10,000 more ice employees, some of those, i think, if the secretary gets his way, would be special agents. Our plan would be to deploy some of those outside the United States. Outside the United States within mexico and other countries as well . Absolutely. Final question to chief benson, in terms of people of interest, do you have a number of how many of those will be apprehended crossing the southern border versus the northern border . When we talk about we use the term special interest alien. Were looking at folks and their travel patterns where we have some concern about those individuals. So that is information that we do keep. I do not have it with me here today. I would have to take that back for the record. Thank you. Recognize myself for questions. I mentioned in my Opening Statement sophisticated drivethrough operation recently broken up in choe keez county, arizona. Looks like they successfully smuggled large quantities of drugs through arizona for years before they were actually caught. These drivethrough operations are something that i hear from my constituents and border residents often about. Weve seen encrypted communication, special code words, other tactics to avoid detection. The last breach that i personally saw on the border is where they used pretty sophisticated blow torch and Welding Equipment to be able to cut through basically a gate in the barrier with hinges. So they were able to prep that in advance. Through their spotters and scouts, they knew when they werent going to be detected. If you actually went by it, you wouldnt be able to see the breach. Giving that case study of them being able to conduct these. Operations for years, do you think this is the level of sophistication is like the new par, this is the new normal for Cartel Operations . Are there additional tools or authorities that we need to give you in order to detect and interdict these types of operations so they dont go on for years before theyre detected . I congratulate them being rolled up and the number being prosecut prosecuted right now. What can we learn from it and do you need additional tools . We do have this phenomenon of the Drug Trafficking organizations and their smuggling. They certainly are very sophisticated in their approaches. They have the benefit of time. Theyve got plenty of time to wait and seek the right opportunity to engage in their illegal activity. They use scouting networks. They utilize encrypted communications. Theyre utilizing, of course, these vehicles, sometimes very rudimentary vehicle, looks like a car carrier and they just use it to ramp over the fence. For us to combat that, we are continuing to work on Situational Awareness, making sure that we are improving our Detection Capabilities along the southwest border. Critical for us to continue to engage with our Law Enforcement partners, certainly with Homeland Security investigations, to make sure that we are all sharing the same information, know about who the networks are, whos operating in the area and then, of course, getting information from the Intelligence Community thats going to provide us with the preevent intel so we can take action. Are there any additional tools specifically related to or authorities related to intercepting or cracking the encryptions . We used bill last Congress Related to the scouts that often times when you roll them up, you cant prosecutor them for anything unless you can tie them to a specific drug load. So we made that a federal crime. It didnt make it into law but were going to keep pruushing tt issue. We have had some success against scouts as you mentioned, we have been able to prosecute some of them. Does require some effort, right . I mean, good, solid police work to sit there and investigate and do that. Were certainly happy to do that and do that very well, i think. Weve been having what i think is a really Good Relationship with the Us Attorneys Office in terms of being able to present these cases and for them to take prosecution on individuals that really dont have any narcotics with them but theyre still able to prove conspiracy and take those cases. Were going to continue to plug away on technology, certainly on the tactical infrastructure, the barriers. We need to keep applying those things to really improve the Situational Awareness we have along the border. Mr. Allen . The one thing i would add is the foreign piece. There was a good example last year in your district but on the mexican side where by having a Good Relationship with our mexican counterparts we were able to make sure that the border was not actually a barrier. When we had information about a failed drivethrough or a drivethrough that had been thwarted, we were able to cue mexican Law Enforcement to go and take action of the mexican side. If we cant action that on the u. S. Side of the border, we can action that on the mexican side. In most of your testimony you talked about better coordination with authorities in mexico, yet endemic corruption through their document and Law Enforcement. How do you balance those two . And cooperating but not tipping them off related to the elements of corruption that would be involved in your Partner Agencies . Ill start on that. Some of it, you know, first of all, you have to go in with your eyes wide open and acknowledge right up front that corruption is a challenge. What some of it comes down to, who you talk to and where and at what level of government. Our best relationships are often in mexico city, away from the border. And as an example to kind of demonstrate how important that can be, last year hsi and cvp and state and local Law Enforcement authorities in arizona did a somewhat unprecedented operation in which we identified targets that we had indictments on the United States and we wanted to go get. We enlisted the support of the Mexican Federal police and got them to send more than 100 Law Enforcement officers in stage on the u. S. Side of the border in arizona and conduct frankly an air mobile assault into mexico from the United States, fully armed, coordinated amongst all the u. S. Agencies from the state department through all Law Enforcement, very successfully. And it was not compromised because we worked with, you know, u. S. Trained, u. S. Vetted Law Enforcement units that made that pomssible. Thats the way we want to continue to move. My time is expired. The chair mentions miss berrigan from california for five minutes. Gentlemen, thank you for your service and thank you for being here today. If they meet a hard barrier on the land, theres a percent of them that will go to the sea. I think its a reasonable potential for that. And you also testified about if you had resources it may be a good place to put it in the seas between, i guess, the u. S. And central and south america. What about do you foresee any increased threats coming into the west side of the u. S. Coast . Is there a greater need down in that area you mentioned . We would do both, maam. We have an ongoing operation just south of l. A. From san diego north where we work with our Partner Agencies. Weve had a big effect and quite a few seizures of marijuana trafficking along there and illegal smuggling. When i take about further down closer to Central America, that cocaine is bound for Central America where it causes all the unrest and criminal activity. Its just fuel for the fire there in those violent countries. Thats what drives the young people out of there and thats why they show up on our borders. Weve been hearing a lot from all the panelists talk about the importance of the u. S. mexico relationship, the importance of that role they play in helping us address and deal with the drug cartels and the criminal organizations. Yet weve been hearing from this Administration Lots of talk about building a wall, having having mexico pay for the wall, even about talks of a possible tariff of 20 on mexico. One of my concerns with all this talk is going to weaken the cooperation between the u. S. And mexico. Having us become less of a partner between the two. Can you comment on what would be the impact if we had that . If we had the u. S. And mexico weaken the cooperation, what that will do on the impact to the drug cartels and us having the ability to fight. Ive been doing this job for a long time now, over 30 years. Certainly we have enjoyed throughout the course of that time what i think is a Good Relationship with the government of mexico. That relationship has gotten better and better and better throughout the years. A number of operations as the ones that director allen mentioned, we engage with local authorities on a regular basis to address border violence, to address crossborder communication so that we both understand what the threat is thats operating in that area. Because we both want a secure border. We look forward to continued relationship with the government of mexico. Its important for us and what were doing from a Law Enforcement perspective, is paying dividends on the Border Security front. Just so i could i want to make sure you answer my question. And that is, what will the impact be if theres less cooperation with the u. S. And mexico . Because i understand what youre saying. I completely agree with you. My concern is that a lot of the rhetoric were hearing from this administration only leads to less cooperation. I want to know what the harm will be unless cooperation to this fight, this very important fight against the drug cartels and the criminal organizations can you address what that impact might be . I think the short answer is it would hurt it. As chief beeson has mentioned, we have weathered similar storms before in our relationships. Fortunately we deal very well Law Enforcement to Law Enforcement with our mexican counterparts. We have not seen any degradation in our relationship. I think we will be able to soldier on and make our way through it. I agree with my fellow panelists. We have not detected any deterioration. Naturally, we work on the basis that our governments want to work with us. Without it, we couldnt accomplish much. Okay. The chair now recognizes miss demmings of florida. Thank you very much for your service. Not just you, but the men and women who serve with you. Mr. Allen, weve heard quite a bit of talk and i do believe we have a strong relationship with mexico. Im thankful for that. What about our working relationship with your counterparts in Central America . In my written testimony one of the things i talk about are transnational investigative units where we work cooperatively with u. S. Trained investigators from host countries that allow us to project our priorities and authorities into the areas that provide that land bridge to the United States. You talked about the number of agents that you have on the ground in mexico. What could be done to enhance that relationship in central and south america . I would say continuing to help them build their capacity. You know, working with the department of state in particular, inl who often funds a lot of our relationships and the u. S. Training that we provide to our foreign counterparts is often funded through inl. So increasing the ability to help them improve their capabilities, which in turn helps us protect our border. Chief beeson n previous years many agents have complained or requested Communication Systems that would allow them to better communication and share information with their Law Enforcement partners. Is this still a challenge for you . And if so, what can be done to improve intercommunications between those partners . We work, i think, very hard at improving relationships with our Law Enforcement partners. I mean, this is really for us. We look at it as a whole of government approach. We want to make sure that Law Enforcement agencies that are able to work with us on these border kmurt issSecurity Issues weve got good communication. We will engage in tasks force investigations with them. Of course, we do have car to Car Communications assuming that our radios are compatible. There are still from time to time sometimes were able to over come that now especially now days with the advent of cell phones. Always working on ways to improve communication. We enjoy what i think is a very Good Relationship with the Law Enforcement community and snag we look forward to continuing in the years to come. Have you had any challenges with the security of the communications . So our communications are encrypted, and so we are continually assessing the viability of the encryption and looking forward to we want to make sure that they remain that way. We do lose radios from time to time or they get stolen. Generally when that happens, were able to inhibit the radios as long as were aware that thats happened. But thats something that were always looking at. Okay. Thank you. I yield back. The chair recognizes mr. Catco from new york for five minutes. I appreciate the chair for h allowing know ask questions. I started off my career as a federal organized crime prosecutor in el paso, texas. I saw firsthand on the border the profound problems we confront. I finished my 20year on the northern border. My concern at times is that we theres been some recent articles to that effect that everyones focusing on the southern border and no ones really paying attention to the northern border, at least from our standpoint. Im not saying Law Enforcement. The northern border is largely a sieve. We have an indian reservation in the Northern District of new york that straddles both sides of the border and is involved in hundreds of millions of dollars a year in cocaine and marijuana trafficking and smuggling of aliens. Many people view the northern border as far more vulnerable to a terrorist infiltration than the southern border. I would just ask that the chairman schedule a hearing so we can dedicate an entire hearing to the northern border issues, because they are profoundly different than the southern border but they do merit more attention. As we saw this week, there are still gaping holes in the Drug Trafficking components at our airports. We saw a case in puerto rico that was now spanned more than a decade and they smuggled more than 20 tons of cocaine onto aircraft from colombia through puerto rico into the u. S. That to me is a profound problem. Thats another border issue. For director allen, as youre well aware of this instance, id like to hear from hsi as to whether you have enough resources to fund these types of investigations at our nations airports. Thats not the first time weve had this at the airports with hsi. Im concerned about that. Secondly, how can tsa or the fbi or other state and local partners better support your efforts . I dont want the fbi to be at odds with you running separate investigations at airports. I want you to coordinate better with Homeland Security. Sure. I would probably not talk about the puerto rico investigation since its a pending prosecution. I am happy to talk about what we often refer to as internal conspiracies is whether they be at airports or seaports. You are correct, they present a tremendous challenge for Law Enforcement in everything from a Counter Terrorism point of view, the ability to get a firearm or other explosive device onto aircraft by using Insider Threat certainly falls well within the scope of our Counter Terrorism responsibilities at the department. But from a Drug Trafficking point of view as well, were well aware that Drug Trafficking organizations want to use that interstate ability to move commercially to get their products from point a to point b. To your question about our resources and our ability to work on that challenge, the vehicle that we use for that is the Border Enforcement Security Task forces. Weve been expanding the bests as we refer to them. I helped stand one up in new york before i left. We now have four airport focused bests, one of them in puerto rico char chartered to focus on that International Conspiracy threat. Our goal would be to expand them and focus both on the physical land border and other choke points, in this case in airports and seaports. I know fbi has headed up some major operations nationwide. The example was the dallas ft. Worth case. It was a multiairport case there. How would you kind of make fbis efforts jive with yours better . That all comes down to coordination and deconfliction. One of the things ive seen accelerate in my career and a huge transformation in Law Enforcement is the willingness of Law Enforcement agencies to deconflict. If resources are needed from the bureau or the bureau Needs Resources from any of the dhs components, that were standing by to talk about that. Thank you. Very quickly, i have 20 seconds. The Ship Rider Program which you use up on the northern border has been i think a very good success. You marry the canadian Law Enforcement with american Law Enforcement and i think its a good way to parole the great lakes and the st. Lawrence as best you can. How is the program doing . And is there any discussions about possibly expanding it . As you stated, sir, that program is doing great. Theyve done about 900 boardings since thats been stood up, several arrests. It closes seams on the border. The Royal Canadian mounted police were real proud of it. St. Lawrence and puget sound, what it needs is more people. Operations and maintenance money, its team members carrying a gun and being trained and operating with the canadians. Thats what were short of. I appreciate that. Hopefully we can have another hearing on this. Theres two articles, one recently titled fbi reports show terror suspects coming from canada while trump stares at mexico. And the other one is from the daily caller, an article about illegal refugees streaming across the quebec border. I ask that both be entered into the record. Without objection. I look forward to working with you on the potential for future discussions on the northern border. Okay, round two here. Vice admiral ray, can you share some perspectives on increased sophistication of Cartel Activities in the maritime domain. Weve heard about them armoring their engines to avoid being shot out or using infrared or submersibles, those types of things. Yes, maam. Ill have to think my way through what i can talk about in this setting. Without a doubt as all the Panel Members have said, they are an innovative, adaptive, agile organization. If you can buy it in the open market, theyve got the funds to buy it. If its anything that has to do with the locating illicit goods, communicating via satellite, theyre doing it. When it comes to their ingenuity on the maritime, its really impressive they can build in a ditch in the jungle in ecuador a craft capable of sailing about the distance of florida to Washington State and carrying about 7,000 or 8,000 pounds of cocaine. Thats pretty impressive. Incredibly innovative, incredibly resourceful. Thats what makes the problem so tough. Thanks. Chief beeson, we talk a lot about Situational Awareness and operational control. So on the land border theres been much discussion today about pushing the border south and disrupting the networks. Thats an important part of the strategy. If any sort of breaches come to the border, whether its going to go over, through, under or around, weve got to make sure weve got the Situational Awareness that those breaches are happening and then the ability to have operational control to intercept those breaches as close to the border as possible. In a previous hearing last Congress Acting chief vitello said the Situational Awareness on the 2000 mile southern border if something breaches, being able to see it realtime is a little over 56 . Do you agree with that them . And what do we need to do in order to increase Situational Awareness so that if something moves, you see it . Chief i think was referring to deployment density. That encompasses Situational Awareness among other things, how youre putting down your resources and things like that. Gotten better. We have fixed towers in nogales. Weve got a system coming online in your district any day now, should be coming operational in douglas. We have another system that will be going operational in senoita in the very near future. Lets not forget the field office as well, being on the line and being able to observe and report what theyre seeing, you know, the barriers that weve deployed and continue to deploy, all of that has to have a response element built into it. Thats the men and women. We need to make sure were continuing to deploy personnel. Our objective is to get them down as close to the border as possible. Obviously we want to push it south. We would like to get the traffic before it ever gets to us. Absent our ability to do that, we want to get it at the border. But we do not want the border to become a single point of failure, so we do need to respond promote appropriately s something get past us on the line. In the community we have fixed check points, still no real measurements of effectiveness there, but allowing the cartels to traffic through communities for hours, days, miles before theyre potentially intercepts which is a Public Safety threat. As were coming with new leadership, is there going to be a fresh look at that strategy and trying to, you know, push closer to the border as opposed to where weve had almost 50 of the interceptions in the tucson sectors are north of five miles of the border. Theres a lot of people who live in that area and thats a continuous Public Safety concern. So we are constantly assessing our strategy and looking for ways to improve upon it. As i mentioned, our objective, really we want to work and push the border south as far as we can. I think weve had some pretty good Success Stories a couple of which director allen mentioned here today, working with the government of mexico to really get some of these bad things before theyre even crossed into the u. S. Were continuing to deploy the men and women down to the border with the objective that were going to make the arrest as close to the border as possible and on the whole when you look at it, thats occurring in a wide number of areas. There are some areas where we still have challenges with access to the border. Theres some environmentally sensitive areas. There are areas where there are no roads. And so those are areas where thats a challenge for us. So were continuing to work really we want them as close to the border, we want to prevent it in the first place and then of course absent our ability to do that, which does happen, then we want to make sure that we do not allow the border to become that single point of failure. We want to make sure weve got the capability to interdict anything that does make it across. Thanks, chief. So lets talk barriers for a minute. Of the 2,000 mile southern border, 700 miles is land and about 1300 is water. Weve got some level of barriers in 654 miles. Secretary kelly testified last week that hed be listening to you and the troops on the ground to hear in different sectors where barriers need to be replaced or added. In your assessment, where do we need additional barriers or different types of barriers . Some of the replacements going on in my district are causing some responses from local residents who are living on the border and their concerned. Could you just comment on your perspective, which secretary kelly said he would be listening to on what we actually need . Secretary kelly did come down to the border. Hes been to my sector. He has also been to the san diego sector subsequent to the visit with us. He did receive briefings from us on what our current laydown is and some of the areas where we would look to enhance that when given opportunity. Customs and Border Protection and the Border Patrol, we have a process, the acronym for it is the cgap analysis. What were doing with that is looking at what our critical needs are, where there are gaps and then making sure that we have the plans moving forward on where we want to put these things. So we can, i think, provide you with another briefing to kind of give you a better idea of where exactly we would like to put up barriers. I appreciate that. The chair recognizes mr. Crea for five minutes. Thank you, madam chair. Wanted to say that during the Obama Administration we had a Record Number of deportations i believe under obama, deportat n deportations were more than the last few president s combined. So my question to all of you is, its my understanding that folks migrating north from mexico has really slowed down tremendously. How much of that is due to a growing mexican economy, growing middle class, growing number of jobs in mexico that provide for folks to stay around nd essenti find a living in mexico . For me, thats more of an economics question, a little outside my area of expertise. Id pass on that one. Everybody pass on that one . Its an economics question, but i think its a relevant one when were looking at putting some imports thats really a Monetary Policy could reduce Economic Growth south of the border. The other question i have is a sensitive one which is on the issue of corruption on our side. Do we have any reports . I know weve had some newspaper articles in the past about some of our border agents. Unfortunately, we, you know any update on that . Any status on corruption on our side of the border . I dont have any numbers and i refer to it both in my written and my oral statement. The reality is that u. S. Law enforcement is not immune to corruption. With while i think anecdotally its certainly at a much lower level in the United States than it is in mexico, you know, back to the question about internal conspiracies in the air environment, we face that same challenge, that Insider Threat challenge on our borders as well. Ice is not immune, cvp is not immune, state and local Law Enforcement in the United States is not immune. I say that because theres so much money involved in this business of drugs that nobodys immune. At the same time, i wanted to take the opportunity to thank all of the men in women in uniform who do protect our borders, who do protect our citizens. You do a darn good job. My final question is really kind of a comment. Got a chance to go to mexico about four or five months ago. I went through some small villages. And the issue of Public Safety is a big one. Folks wont go out of their homes after the sun goes down because they fear for their lives. It was very interesting. A few days before i got there the Mexican Marines came in and swept up the whole area, is my understanding. Unofficially about 40 casualties, 40 of the bad guys were taken out. I want coencourage you to continue to cooperate with the authorities because when the Mexican Marines go in with u. S. Leadership they do make a difference to the folks living in the small villages throughout mexico. Please continue to do a good job. Gentlemen yields back. The chair recognizes mr. Rutherford from florida for a second round. No . Great. Just a few more questions. Admiral ray, can you share any changes and trends to the change in the wet foot dry foot policy as far as cubans trying to head north . Yes, maam. As i said last year was a record year in terms of growth of cuban immigrati immigration. The wet foot dry foot was repealed last month. We saw a dramatic downturn. This is not really the season this time of year with the weather and other things. Were certainly not letting our guard down now because theres always the threat and certainly the conditions in cuba and america havent changed. We see the threat is still out there, but the facts on the water as of right now since that was repealed, theres a lot less attempts that weve seen thus far. Great. Thanks. Can any of you comment on weve had a number of states in the country legalizing marijuana and whether thats impockactinge Business Model of the cartels and changing from marijuana to other drugs or Human Trafficking related to the supply and demand issue . I think that might fall into what we would call the intelligence gap. When we talked earlier about heroin, in my mind theres no mistaking the explosive, you know, growth in the cultivation of poppies in mexico and the transition to heroin as one of their primary drugs theyre exporting into the United States. Coordination doesnt mean causality. The increased demand and the hard drugs, most of you have testified to. Mr. Allen, what else do we need to do at the ports of entry related to these hard drugs making their way through . Pretty innovative techniques as many of you have testified to. I cvp has done a tremendous job in refining and improving how they target at ports of entry. I think focusing more resources on that problem set, you know, the reality is that cvpos on the border have a very very short time to make a decision about whether they should admit somebody or refer a vehicle or person to secondary for further inspection. Giving them the resources and capabilities to target as effectively as they can both in the pedestrian environment and cargo. Is there additional technologies that are needed or technologies proven that are not deployed to each of the ports of industry . I defoer to the chief on tha. I will have to take that back for the record and ask my field ops. I agree with many of the comments made by my colleagues here today. Weve got to make sure that the legitimate Economic Activity that comes north and south continues to be able to flow while were intercepting the l illegitimate activity and the m human smuggling. If were talking about Border Security, weve got to look at it in its complete neness. Weve seen in my community the douglas port of entry just as an example is one that is old, is not capable for addressing the commerce, but also its a security issue because they need upgrades to be able to address the ill le jegitimate activity. We need to look at this more l holistically. I think somehow we often just talk about between the ports of entry but the security at the ports of entry is just as critical. All right. Chair recognizes my colleague for my last thank you very much. Again, i want to thank everybody for being here today. I also conqucur with our chairperson. I just wanted to leave again focussing with our madam chairperson has said, ports of entry, inland ports, which is a concept i picked up from my colleagues in texas, that checking our cargo, checking those things that are about to cross the border a few miles before they get to the border, be sealed and so that once you get to the border, your job is a whole lot easier than they are now. Has there been any further thought about working on those inland ports of entry . So cvp has engaged in several different pilot programs. The one youre referring to i think was in california, most recently in arizona, they have a program, a joint Customs Program with mexican customs that has been working quite well for them. They speak very highly of it. And so its something that we continue to assess. Great. I want to thank the witnesses for their valuable testimony and the dialogue and the questions and answers today. I thank the members for their questions as well. The members of the committee may have some additional questions for the witnesses. I would ask you to respond to these in writing. The hearing record will be open for ten days. Without objection, the committee stands adjourned