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• Protecting and enforcing our borders, including expansion of the America's Shield program and the continuation of the Arizona Border Control Initiative.

Supporting port security activities, including Coast Guard port security programs and Customs and Border Protection container security programs.

• Creating a new Screening Coordination and Operations Office to enhance security screening of people, cargo, and conveyances.

• Concentrating Federal funds for State and local homeland security assistance programs on the highest threats, vulnerabilities, and needs.

• Improving the Nation's ability to detect and rapidly characterize a potential bioterrorist attack by collecting and analyzing disease surveillance data from people, animals, and plants.

• Improving detection of, and countermeasures for, the threat posed by nuclear and radiological weapons.

• Enhancing detection of, and countermeasures for, the threat posed by chemical agents.

• Strengthening aviation security by upgrading explosives detection technology, deploying new baggage-screening systems, and improving the monitoring of performance by airport screeners and screening systems.

MEETING PRESIDENTIAL GOALS—Continued

Supporting a Compassionate Society

Supporting response and recovery to major disasters and emergencies.

• Achieving a six-month processing standard for immigration applications by the end of 2006.

Agency-specific Goals

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Providing continued support for the United States Secret Service's protection and investigation programs.

Supporting all Coast Guard missions including security of ports, waterways and coastlines, drug and migrant interdiction, and fisheries enforcement.

PROTECTING AMERICA

Securing the Nation's Border, Ports, and Transportation Systems

The President's 2006 Budget will continue to ensure the security of the Nation's borders, ports, and transportation systems with enhanced screening of goods and people through programs such as the new Screening Coordination and Operations Office; increases to the United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology (US-VISIT) system; additional radiological and nuclear inspection equipment; and expansion of the Container Security Initiative. The President's 2006 Budget will strengthen enforcement, border, and port security with increases to the Border Patrol; continued execution of the Arizona Border Control Initiative (ABCi); improvements to the Coast Guard; and new, threat-focused State and local assistance grants.

Improving Enforcement, Border, and Port Security. The primary mission of the Border Patrol is to detect and apprehend illegal aliens and smugglers of aliens at or near our land border. The Border Patrol is specifically responsible for patrolling the 6,000 miles of Mexican and Canadian international land borders and 2,000 miles of coastal waters surrounding the Florida Peninsula and the island of Puerto Rico.

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Funding for the Border Patrol in 2006 includes $37 million for 210 additional Border Patrol agents, and $20 million for the acquisition and replacement of aging Border Patrol aircraft. Since September 11, 2001, Border Patrol staffing has grown by nearly 1,200 agents (11-percent increase). The President's Budget also enhances the America's Shield Initiative, an integration of many surveillance, video, and detection systems along the border.

The Border Patrol uses horses in difficult terrain to secure the Nation's border.

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PROTECTING AMERICA-Continued

Detaining and removing illegal aliens is critical to effective enforcement of our immigration laws. The 2006 Budget continues the Administration's commitment to enforcing our Nation's immigration laws and increases funding by $176 million for the detention and removal of illegal aliens. It provides $90 million for increased detention beds and additional detention and removal officers. It also provides $39 million for the detention and repatriation costs of the ABCi, which aims to deter illegal crossings of the desert. The Budget also includes $8 million to apprehend alien fugitives and $5.4 million to ensure that aliens convicted of crimes in the United States are deported directly from correctional institutions after their time is served, preventing their release into the community. The Budget also includes $3.5 million for additional Department of Homeland Security (DHS) attorneys to prosecute immigration cases.

Alternatives to conventional detention methods are essential to improving performance. In the case of non-criminal aliens, particularly asylum seekers, officials are using alternative custody arrangements to ensure their appearance at immigration proceedings. These pilot programs have been successful and the Budget requests $5.4 million in additional funding to expand them. This will allow DHS to focus resources on the most serious alien criminals.

Coast Guard security escorts the Liquified Natural Gas Tanker MATTHEW in Boston Harbor.

The Budget includes $6.9 billion for the Coast Guard, an 11.4-percent increase over the comparable 2005 level. Within these levels, $1.9 billion is for the Coast Guard's Port, Waterways, and Coastal Security mission. This will fund a variety of high-priority Coast Guard initiatives like armed, high-speed boats in ports with liquefied natural gas terminals, further implementation of the Automatic Identification System to track sea-going vessels and enhance Maritime Domain Awareness, new weapons systems for the Coast Guard's helicopter fleet, and implementation of the Common Operating Picture to enable Coast Guard assets to work better together.

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Ports and other transportation facilities where people and cargo enter the United States will be a major priority for the $600 million Targeted Infrastructure Protection grant program, which will enhance State, local, and private efforts to secure our Nation's critical infrastructure.

Effective Screening of Goods and People. Following enhancements since September 11, 2001, and the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, on August 27, 2004, the President issued guidance that directed DHS, in coordination with other departments and agencies, to enhance terrorist-related screening of people, cargo, and conveyances, and implement a coordinated and comprehensive approach to terrorist-related screening in immigration, law enforcement, intelligence, counterintelligence, border and transportation systems, and critical infrastructure. This Budget meets these goals, and reinforces actions already accomplished to augment our existing screening programs.

A new DHS organizational structure that consolidates existing programs will substantially improve internal coordination, operations, and efficiency of screening roles and missions. This new Screening Coordination and Operations Office will manage DHS major screening programs, including: the United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology Program (US-VISIT),

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