Speech #1090111880

Act also requires the Department of Homeland Security to greatly increase its detention facilities. Right now. the border patrol is sometimes able to capture illegal aliens sneaking into the country. but we simply lack enough facilities to detain them. In some border areas. up to 90 percent of captured aliens are released. and only 10 percent of them show up for their immigration court hearing. Does that make sense? If our Government cannot detain illegal aliens who are caught. we lose our ability to make them report to their immigration proceedings. We never hear from them again. Thus. this bill instructs the Department of Homeland Security to increase its detention space by 20.000 beds for the next 5 years. The bill also instructs the Department to devise other ways to monitor illegal aliens who are captured. such as using ankle bracelets that can remotely track aliens. Moreover. the BORDERS Act recognizes that our Government simply lacks the personnel manpower to effectively enforce our immigration laws and secure our borders. Therefore. the bill authorizes the addition of thousands of critical Federal jobs. ranging from Border Patrol agents to investigators to detention officers. And the bill requires that these personnel receive crucial training in matters like detecting fraudulent documents. Another important section of this bill recognizes that in order for our detention mechanisms to function effectively. we need uniform detention standards.