OK, I read to much, and spend far too much time pouring through various governmental documents, but it DOES COME IN HANDY now and again. I thought every one would find it very interesting what America is doing to secure Iraq's borders why leaving ours unsecured and unsafe as terrorists and illegals stream across at will with no one willing to do any thing about it. Reading this will make you wonder just what our government is really up to when letting 15-20 million illegal alien come across to steal our jobs and lives.

Pinto Bean

Border Enforcement P/C 11000
FUNDS (Millions of $s) 1st Qtr FY 2004 2nd Qtr FY 2004 3rd Qtr FY 2004 4th Qtr FY 2004 FY 2005
Appropriated 150.0 75.0 75.0

Responsible U.S. Government Agency: Department of Defense, on behalf of CPA-Ministry of Interior.

Secure borders and ports of entry are critical to national security and preventing foreign terrorists and others attempting to subvert Iraq from entering the country.

The Department of Borders and Enforcement (DBE) is responsible for the security of the borders and has full policing powers to investigate, arrest, and detain persons suspected of illegal or terrorist activities. The Iraqi Borders and Customs Police are a single unit and can be broken down into three divisions: patrol, investigation, and deportation and detention.

The patrol division is spread along the Iraqi border at 17 Class A ports of entry and 10 Class B ports of entry and is charged with guarding its posts and outlying areas. If breaches occur, the investigation division is asked to follow up and investigate illegal crossing and smuggling reports. Finally, the detention and deportation division handles those individuals who have, in fact, illegally entered the country.

Training and equipping new Border Police and Customs and Immigration officials will drastically improve border security providing a long-term stabilizing effect and helping to create the conditions for a safe and prosperous Iraq. The DBE officials will be required to complete the standard eight-week training required of all Iraqi police officers before attending advanced training classes. Border Police attend a two-week class covering additional security instruction in patrolling outlying border areas. Advanced training classes for Customs and Immigration officials last one week and include instruction on primarily administrative and clerical tasks.

The U.S. Congress appropriated $150 million to reconstruct various DBE facilities and train/equip current and new border police and customs officials. The table above lists the planned expenditures. As part of the Administration’s plan to accelerate security efforts in Iraq, the Administration proposes to re-allocate an additional $150 million from the New Iraqi Army to support a $300 million border enforcement program, with a total force strength of 27,500 instead of the 13,600 contemplated by the Supplemental.

This $300 million will fund construction of new facilities and training and equipment for Border Police and Customs and Immigration officials. Of this amount, $148 million will be spent on new facilities. Approximately $107 million is for the construction of the training facility in Sulaymaniyah and various border, customs, and immigration facilities throughout Iraq (see the following map). This money will be used for 17 ports of entry, immigration and border police headquarters, 3 airport ports of entry, 2 seaport ports of entry, 17 denial points, 153 border police posts, and 245 nationality offices. The remaining $41 million will be spent to furnish existing and newly constructed border facilities. A total of $152 million will be spent on equipment and systems for Border Enforcement personnel:

This includes $32 million for vehicles; $48 million for equipment, uniforms, protective vests, weapons and ammunition; $34 million for x-ray scanners in each Class A port of entry; $13 million for the redesign of nationality cards and the continued equipping of border police; $5 million for the computerization of national civil affairs; $5 million for a new passport system; and $15 million for technical infrastructure.