Sequestration Would Impede CBP, ICE Activities, Says DHS Secretary

The major cuts to government spending that would occur if sequestration comes to fruition would create major problems for CBP and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, among others, said Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. Napolitano conveyed her concerns in a letter responding to House Homeland Security Committee Ranking Member Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), who asked about how sequestration, set to take effect March 1, would affect DHS. Sequestration would "increase wait times at our Nation's land ports of entry and airports" and "affect aviation and maritime safety and security," she said in the letter (here).

Specifically, CBP would be unable to maintain current staffing of CBP officers as mandated by Congress, she said. "Funding and staffing reductions will increase wait times at airports, affect security between land ports of entry, affect CBP's ability to collect revenue owed to the Federal Government, and slow screening and entry programs for those traveling into the United States," said Napolitano. ICE would have to reduce Homeland Security Investigations' activities," including human smuggling, counter-proliferation, and commercial trade fraud investigations," she said. U.S. Coast Guard reductions would also threaten maritime safety for the flow of commerce along U.S. waterways, the letter said.

“Significant budget cuts for this agency pose real-world dangers for the range of critical CBP duties and inevitably would have a ripple effect throughout government, since CBP is the second-largest generator of federal revenue, behind only the Internal Revenue Service,” said National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen Kelley. NTEU, which released the letter from Napolitano, represents CBP employees.

(See ITT's Online Archives 12091723 for summary of how sequestration would affect CBP.)