Department of Homeland Security – President’s Budget Request Fiscal Year (FY) 2018

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY (DHS)

FY 2018 Requested Discretionary Funding for DHS: $44.1 billion [FY 2017 Omnibus Enacted Discretionary Funding: $42.4 billion; 4 percent increase].

CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION (CBP)

FY 2018 Total Requested Spending Authority: $16.4 billion [FY 2017 Total Spending Authority: $13.5 billion; 21.5 percent increase]. The total spending authority for FY 2018 includes $2.3 billion in collected fees and fines.

• FY 2018 Requested Discretionary Funding: $14.1 billion [FY 2017 Omnibus Enacted Discretionary Funding: $11.4 billion; 23.7 percent increase].

Border Security Operations: $4.5 billion [FY 2017 Omnibus Enacted Discretionary Funding: $4.2 billion; 7.1 percent increase]. This item funds most of CBP’s operations along the borders between ports of entry (POEs).

• S. Border Patrol: $4.458 billion [FY 2017 Omnibus Enacted Discretionary Funding: $4.168 billion; 7 percent increase]. This item funds the operations of the Border Patrol, which in FY 2016 consisted of approximately 19,828 agents, as well as its assets and support items.
• UAC-Current Support: $150.4 million [FY 2017 Omnibus funding level unspecified]. This item supports services for a surge of up to 75,000 unaccompanied minors (UACs) and family units along the Southwest border, including transportation to/from CBP facilities to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the airport, supplies and equipment for temporary detention (up to 72 hours).
• Hire 500 Border Patrol Agents: $100 million [new funding item]. This new funding item would fund efforts to recruit, hire and train 500 new Border Patrol agents to implement the directives in the President’s executive order to increase border security. Approximately $60 million from this item comes from the Border Security Operations account, while the remaining $40 million comes the Mission Support account.
• Office of Training and Development: $77 million [FY 2017 annualized Continuing Resolution (CR): $49 million; 57 percent increase]. The Office of Training and Development (OTD) establishes standards and policies for designing, delivering and evaluating training at CBP. This item funds OTD operations for the Border Patrol.

Trade and Travel Operations: $4.2 billion [FY 2017 Omnibus Enacted Discretionary Funding: $4.1 billion; 2.4 percent increase]. This item funds most of CBP’s operations related to border security at POEs.

• Office of Field Operations (OFO): $3.9 billion [FY 2017 Omnibus Enacted Discretionary Funding: $3.8 billion; 2.6 percent increase].This item funds operations at all 327 POEs in the U.S. and approximately 22,000 OFO officers and agriculture specialists.

Integrated Operations: $1.1 billion [FY 2017 Omnibus Enacted Discretionary Funding: $1 billion; 10 percent increase]. This item includes funding for command and control, coordination, occupational health and safety and informational and situation awareness for multiple CBP mission programs, including Air and Marine Operations.

• Air and Marine Operations: $880 million [FY 2017 Omnibus Enacted Discretionary Funding: $820 million; 7.3 percent increase]. This item funds Air and Marine Operations’ 1,800 federal agents and missions support personnel, 240 aircraft and 300 marine vessels tasked with interdicting unlawful cargo and people without documentation in the air and maritime environments.

Procurement, Construction, and Improvements: $2.1 billion [FY 2017 annualized Continuing Resolution (CR): $355 million; 491.5 percent increase].

• Border Wall Construction: $1.571 billion [new funding item]. This item would support construction of 32 miles of a “new border wall system” in the Rio Grande Valley Sector, 28 miles of new levee wall in the Rio Grande Valley Sector, 14 miles of a “border wall system” that will replace existing secondary fence in the San Diego Sector and planning activities for further border wall construction.

Border Security Technology & Infrastructure: $1.024 billion [new funding item]. This item would fund investments in border security infrastructure and technology to gain operation control of the border.

• Technology, Assets and Equipment: $667.2 million. This item provides funding for surveillance at the border, including $153 million to acquire new aircraft to fortify the Air and Marine Fleet along the Southwest border, $135 million to support upgrades to Border Patrol and Air and Marine Operations facilities, $109 million for recapitalization of Non-Intrusive Inspection (NII) equipment, $93 million for field technology and equipment, and $60 million to replace Border Patrol vehicles, among other allocations.
• Southwest Border Surveillance Technology: $197.2 million. This funding will support surveillance at the border, including $66 million to deploy seven new remote video surveillance systems (RVSS), $40 million to complete the deployment of Integrated Fixed Towers (IFT) in the Tucson Sector, $35 million for Tactical Aerostats, $23 million to deploy and sustain approximately 4,688 additional ground sensors along the Southwest border, $16 million for Mobile Surveillance Capabilities, $9 million for the Cross Border Tunnel program to begin the development of tunnel test beds, $5 million for Mobile Video Surveillance Systems, $2.5 million for small unmanned aircraft systems and $0.7 million for Department of Defense re-use.
• Tactical Infrastructure: $111.4 million. This item supports the construction of 15 miles of new roads along the Southwest border ($49.7 million), as well as funds to plan, construct and replace various tactical infrastructure components, including roads, fences, gates, bridges, lighting, electrical components, vegetation removal, debris removal and maintain towers and real property ($61.7 million).
• Border Patrol Agent Retention and Relocation: $30 million. This item would fund CBP’s ability to retain and relocate Border Patrol and Air and Marine agents located along the Southwest border.

Mission Support: $1.8 billion [FY 2017 Omnibus Enacted Discretionary Funding: $1.5 billion; 20 percent increase].

• Office of Chief Counsel: $55.6 million [FY 2017 annualized CR: $53.5 million; 3.9 percent increase]. This item supports an additional 12 full-time equivalent (FTE) positions, bringing the total to 368 FTE positions. The Office of Chief Counsel anticipates an “unprecedented increase in legal support” in real property, procurement, fiscal law, as well as overall programmatic support to advance the construction of a wall along the Southwest border.
• Body-Worn Cameras: $5 million [FY 2017 Omnibus Enacted Discretionary Funding: $0]. This item supports the analysis, test and evaluation activities regarding the incorporation of body-worn camera technology in CBP law enforcement operations, including $1.5 million for the Border Patrol, $1.5 million for the Office of Field Operations, $1 million for Air and Marine Operations and $1 million for training environments.

IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT (ICE)

FY 2017 Total Requested: $7.9 billion [FY 2017 Omnibus Enacted Discretionary Funding: $6.2 billion; 27.4 percent increase]. The number of FTE positions would increase by 980 positions to 20,967.

• This request includes an increase in 1,606 positions (806 FTE positions) “to hire 10 percent of the 10,000 deportation officers and special agents mandate required by the Presidential Executive Order that called for increased immigration enforcement.”
• The request also includes one FTE position for the Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement Office, “which assists the victims of crimes committed by removable aliens.”

Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO): $4.9 billion [FY 2017 Omnibus Enacted Discretionary Funding: $3.5 billion; 40 percent increase]. ERO carries out the apprehension, detention, and removal of removable individuals from the U.S. The request calls for 8,532 FTE positions, an increase of 545 positions.

• Custody Operations: $3.6 billion [FY 2017 Omnibus Enacted Discretionary Funding: $2.6 billion; a 38.5 percent increase]. The request calls for 5,385 FTE positions, an increase of 82 positions.
  • The request supports an increase in $1.242 billion for detention beds to detain an average daily adult population of 48,879 and a family daily average population of 2,500 for a total of 51,379 beds. In FY 2016, ICE maintained a daily average of 34,376 individuals.
  • The 51,379 beds requested represent an intent to increase detention by 49.5 percent of the number of individuals detained on average in FY 2016. Of the requested beds, 48,884 would be funded by Congressional appropriations, and an additional 2,495 beds would be funded by fees.
  • The $3.6 billion for the detention of 51,379 individuals represents an average daily rate of approximately $192.

• Fugitive Operations: $184.7 million [FY 2017 annualized CR: $156.2 million; 18.2 percent increase]. FTE positions would increase by 104 positions to 933 FTE positions.
  • The National Fugitive Operations Program (NFOP) “provides policy direction, strategic planning, and operational oversight for ERO’s efforts to locate, arrest, and reduce the population of at-large removable aliens within the U.S.”

• Criminal Alien Program: $412 million [FY 2017 Omnibus Enacted Discretionary Funding: $312 million; 32 percent increase]. The request calls for 1,836 positions, an increase of 305 positions from the 1,531 positions provided in the annualized FY 2017 CR.
  • The Criminal Alien Program (CAP) “provides direction and support in the biometric and biographic identification, arrest, and removal of priority aliens who are incarcerated within federal, state, and local prisons and jails, as well as at-large criminal aliens that have circumvented identification.

• Alternatives to Detention: $177.7 million[FY 2017 Omnibus Enacted Discretionary Funding: $126 million; 41 percent increase]. FTE positions would increase by 21 to 272.
  • The Alternatives to Detention (ADT) Division of ICE “provides an alternative to detention through the use of technology, is responsible for the care and custody of unaccompanied alien children and families, and provides guidance related to immigration bond management.”
  • An increase of $57.4 million for ATD is projected to sustain an additional 14,000 participants in the program.

• Transportation and Removal Program: $484.9 million [FY 2017 Omnibus Enacted Discretionary Funding: $324 million; 49.7 percent increase]. The number of FTE positions would rise by 33 to 106 positions.
  • This program provides for secure transportation of individuals in ICE custody between facilities and during removal.
  • An increase of $164.3 million is requested to keep pace with the additional detained population. The request includes funding for the transportation of unaccompanied minors.

• Other specific requests made in the budget for Enforcement and Removal Operations.
  • $11.2 million for reimbursement to other federal agencies “for costs associated with the care, maintenance and repatriation of smuggled aliens unlawfully present in the United States;”
  • $5.4 million to facilitate 287(g) agreements with local and state law enforcement agencies.

Homeland Security Investigations: $2.019 billion [FY 2017 annualized CR: $1.976 billion; 2.2 percent increase]. The budget includes funding for 8,822 FTE positions, an increase of 96 positions. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) is responsible for “criminal and civil enforcement of federal laws governing border control, customs, trade, and immigration.” The offices’ responsibilities include investigating violations “related to export control, human rights abuses, narcotics, weapons and contraband smuggling, financial crimes, cybercrime, human trafficking and smuggling, child exploitation, intellectual property infringements, transnational gangs and immigration benefit fraud.”

• Domestic Investigations: $1.8 billion [FY 2017 Omnibus Enacted Discretionary Funding: $1.8 billion; no change in funding]. The budget calls for 8,116 FTE positions, an increase of 96 positions. This item funds ICE’s efforts in leading interagency law enforcement task forces and operations, conducting I-9 audits and enforcement investigations and managing ICE’s national security work.
• International Investigations: $141 million [FY 2017 annualized CR: $133 million; 6 percent increase]. The Budget Request maintains the number of FTE positions at 296.
  • “HSI’s International Operations Division is the Department of Homeland Security’s largest investigative presence overseas. Division personnel serve as liaisons to governments and law enforcement agencies across the globe and work side-by-side with foreign law enforcement on HSI investigations overseas.”

• Other specific requests made in the budget for Homeland Security Investigations
  • $6 million to enforce laws against forced child labor.
  • $13.7 million for the visa security program and investigations abroad.

Legal Proceedings (Office of the Principal Legal Advisor [OPLA]): $282.5 million [FY 2017 annualized CR: $239.3 million; 18.1 percent increase]. The request would support 1,703 FTE positions, an increase of 212 positions.

• “OPLA’s attorneys represent the U.S. Government in exclusion, deportation, bond, and removal proceedings before the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR). OPLA also provides critical legal advice to ICE’s law enforcement components. OPLA attorneys support DOJ in defending removal orders when they are appealed to the U.S. Courts of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court.”

Other requests highlighted in the budget

• $23.3 million to “upgrade end-of-life information technology infrastructure supporting Mission Essential Systems.”
• $20.3 million for the TECS Modernization program, “a multiyear initiative to modernize the capabilities of ICE’s case management system.”
• $7.8 million for Consolidated ICE Financial Solution. This funding is to be used “to continue the financial system migration from ICE’s legacy system to a shared services provider.”

OFFICE OF CIVIL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES (OCRCL)

FY 2018 Total Requested Discretionary Funding: $20.7 million [FY 2017 Omnibus Enacted Discretionary Funding: $22.6 million; 8.4 percent decrease]. The Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties advises and trains DHS leadership on civil rights and civil liberties issues, investigates civil rights and civil liberties complaints from the public and manages DHS’ equal employment opportunity programs. It is specifically involved in the oversight of ICE’s 287(g) and PEP programs by providing policy advice, investigations and training.

OFFICE OF THE INSPECTOR GENERAL

FY 2018 Total Requested Discretionary Funding: $158 million [FY 2017 Omnibus Enacted Discretionary Funding: $175 million; 9.7 percent decrease]. The Office of Inspector General conducts and supervises independent audits, inspections, special reviews and investigations of DHS programs and operations. The request would fund 720 full-time equivalents (FTEs), a decrease from 796 FTEs in FY 2017.

U.S. CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION SERVICES (USCIS)

FY 2018 Total Spending Authority: $4.4 billion [FY 2017 Total Spending Authority: $4.2 billion; 4.8 percent increase]. The total spending authority for FY 2018 includes approximately $4.3 billion in amounts to be collected under fee accounts.

• FY 2018 Requested Discretionary Funding: $131.5 million [FY 2017 Omnibus Enacted Discretionary Funding: $119.1 million; 10.4 percent increase].

Immigration Examinations Fee Account: $4.2 billion [FY 2017 Total Spending Authority: $4 billion; 5 percent increase]. Almost all of USCIS funding comes from the Immigration Examinations Fee Account, into which are deposited the fees collected by applicants for immigration benefits. Funds are used to operate USCIS District Offices, service centers, Asylum/Refugee Operations, records, information and customer services, adjudication services and administration.

• Asylum, Refugee and International Operations: $400 million [FY 2017 Spending Authority: $259 million; 54.4 percent increase]. This item is funded from the Immigration Examinations Fee Account to extend humanitarian protection and immigration benefits to eligible individuals. The item includes an increase of 287 positions and 273 FTEs compared to FY 2017.
• Systemic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE): $34 million [FY 2017 Spending Authority: $27 million; 25.9 percent increase].This program assists federal, state and local agencies in determining eligibility for licenses or public benefits by verifying the applicant’s immigration status. It is funded through a combination of fees charged to users of the system and funds from the Immigration Examinations Fee Account.

H-1B and L Fraud Prevention and Detection Fee Account: $67.2 million [FY 2017 Total Spending Authority: $45 million; 49.3 percent increase]. These funds are collected from fees and used to prevent and detect fraud in the delivery of all immigration benefit types to ensure the integrity of the immigration system.

H-1B Nonimmigrant Petitioner Fee Account: $15 million [FY 2017 Total Spending Authority: $15 million; no change in funding]. Certain employers who participate in the H‑1B program must pay $1,500 in addition to the Form I-129 base filing fee. Of the amounts deposited into the H–1B Nonimmigrant Petitioner Account, 55% of the fee revenue is provided to the Department of Labor, 40% is provided to the National Science Foundation and 5% percent is retained by USCIS.

Employment Status Verification (E-Verify): $131.5 million [FY 2017 Omnibus Enacted Discretionary Funding: $119.1 million; 10.4 percent increase]. These discretionary appropriations fund DHS’ employment eligibility verification system which allows employers to voluntarily check the legal status of their workers.

Citizenship and Integration Grants: $0. [FY 2017 Omnibus Enacted Discretionary Funding: $10 million; 100 percent decrease]. Congress authorized USCIS to obligate $10 million in FY 2017 from user fee revenue to support the Citizenship and Integration Grants program. These grants would promote awareness and understanding of citizenship. This is the only federal program that supports the civic integration of lawful immigrants through citizenship preparation programs. These competitive grants expand the availability of high quality citizenship preparation programs for permanent residents in communities nationwide.

OFFICE OF CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION SERVICES OMBUDSMAN

FY 2016 Enacted: $6 million [FY 2017 annualized CR: $6.1 million; 1.6 percent decrease]. The USCIS Ombudsman assists individuals and employers with cases pending before USCIS and proposes policy changes to mitigate identified problem.