Marshals to protect our airplanes, and finally the INS investigators.

CBP was given all Treasury Customs inspectors at the ports-ofentry, Agriculture Inspector from the Department Of Agriculture, and INS inspectors.

At no time during the reorganization planning was it anticipated by the Committee that an immigration enforcement agency would share its role with other enforcement functions,such as enforcement of our customs laws. This simply results in the creation of dual or multiple missions that the act sought to avoid in the first place.

Failure to adhere to the statutory framework established by HSA has produced immigration enforcement incoherence that undermines the immigration enforcement mission central to DHS, and undermines the security of our Nation's borders and citizens.

It is not certain on what basis it was determined that customs and agriculture enforcement should become part of the immigration enforcement agency, except to require Federal agents at the border to have more expertise and more functions.

It is also unknown on what basis the Federal Air Marshals should become part of this agency, especially since it has been revealed that the policy is not to apprehend out-of-immigration status aliens when discovered on flights. If the mission of the Department of Homeland Security is to protect the homeland, it cannot effect its mission by compromising or neglecting immigration enforcement for customs enforcement.

The 9/11 terrorists all came to the United States without weapons or contraband-Added customs enforcement would not have stopped 9/11 from happening. What might have foiled al Qaeda's plan was additional immigration focus, vetting and enforcement. And so what is needed is recognition that, one, immigration is a very important national security issue that cannot take a back seat to customs or agriculture. Two, immigration is a very complex issue, and immigration enforcement agencies need experts in immigration enforcement. And three, the leadership of our immigration agencies should be shielded from political pressures to act in a way which could compromise the Nation's security.

While I am grateful for the service and good work of the heads of our immigration agencies-some of whom are leaving presently for other experiences in Government-I would urge the Administration in the future to place the leadership of the immigration agencies in the hands of those experienced in immigration matters. Mr. HOSTETTLER. At this point, I will turn to other Members of the Subcommittee for opening statements.

Mr. King, no statement at this time?

At this time I would like to turn to members of our panel and introduce them.

Michael Cutler began working for the former Immigration and Naturalization Service in 1971 as an immigration inspector assigned to JFK National Airport in New York. Throughout his career, he has been an immigration inspector, an immigration adjudicator, and became a special agent in 1975. He has been invited to testify before Congress and the 9/11 Commission on many occasions by both the Majority and Minority because of his broad expe

rience in immigration enforcement over several decades. He is also a frequent commentator on immigration matters in such programs as Lou Dobbs, Fox News, numerous radio programs and regularly appears on Radio WIBA in Madison, Wisconsin, on Up Front with Vicki McKenna. Michael Cutler graduated from Brooklyn College of the City University of New York in 1971 with a B.A. In communications arts and science.

Our second witness will be Mr. T.J. Bonner, head of the National Border Patrol Council, which represents more than 10,000 frontline Border Patrol employees. Mr. Bonner, a 27-year veteran Border Patrol agent, is in a unique position to tell us today about the current state of our immigration enforcement agencies, the effect that policies have on morale, and Border Patrol's ability to accomplish the immigration enforcement mission, and employees' assessment of whether they have been given proper mission direction and priorities.

Ms. Janice Kephart was counsel to the immigration team of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, or the 9/11 Commission. Prior to that she served as counsel to Senate Subcommittee on Technology, Terrorism and Government Information, chaired by Senator John Kyl. Ms. Kephart has been the author of numerous articles on immigration and terrorism, and of a book entitled, The Enterprise of Terror: The Structure of alQaeda and Radical Islamic Groups in the United States. She also has been a guest on major media shows such as Lou Dobbs.

Richard M. Stana is Director of Homeland Security and Justice Issues at the Government Accountability Office. During his 29-year career with GAO, he has directed reviews on a wide variety of complex military and civilian management issues. Mr. Stana earned a master's degree in business administration with a concentration in financial management from Kent State University. He is also a graduate of Cornell University's Johnson School of Management Program on Strategic Decision Making, and Harvard University's JFK School of Government Program on Leadership and Perform

ance.

If the witnesses would please rise to take the oath, and raise your right hand.

[Witnesses sworn.]

Mr. HOSTETTLER. Let the record reflect that all witnesses answered in the affirmative.

Without objection, all of your written testimony will be made a part of the record. If you could summarize that within 5 minutes. We have a series of lights, no bells, no whistles, but lights to inform you of the time that you have left in your testimony. Once again, thank you for being here today.

Mr. Cutler, you are recognized.

TESTIMONY OF MICHAEL CUTLER, FORMER INS SENIOR SPECIAL AGENT

Mr. CUTLER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Chairman Hostettler, Ranking Member Jackson Lee, distinguished Members of Congress, members of the panel, ladies and gentlemen, I welcome this opportunity to provide testimony today

on the critical issue of the dual missions of the immigration enforcement agencies.

While my prepared testimony will focus on ICE, it's my understanding that the inspections program of CBP is similarly hobbled in its ability to enforce the immigration laws.

For decades our Nation has had the reputation of being the cando Nation; if we could dream it, we could accomplish it. Our Nation's entry into both world wars ended with victory. When President John F. Kennedy challenged our scientists and engineers to land men on the moon and return them safely to the Earth, in less than a decade we again rose to the challenge.

Today our Nation is challenged by many problems, and the one issue that impacts so many of these other issues, the enforcement and the administration of the immigration laws, eludes our purported efforts at solving it.

For decades the immigration crisis-and it is, indeed, a crisishas grown more significant, and its repercussions have increased exponentially. We are waging a war on terror and a war on drugs. The immigration component of this battle, of which not only the lives of our citizens, but the survival of our Nation itself is on the line, appears to be insoluble. I am here today to tell you that we can control our Nation's borders, and we can effectively administer and enforce the immigration laws from within the interior of the United States.

In order to gain control of our borders and our immigration programs, we need to see it as a system; we also need to understand that the interior enforcement program is critical to gaining control over our Nation's borders.

Nearly half of the illegal aliens do not enter the country by running the border, but rather by being admitted through a port-ofentry and then subsequently violating their terms of admission. Special agents are desperately needed to not only seek to arrest illegal aliens, but to conduct field investigations to uncover immigration fraud to restore integrity to the benefits program which has been historically plagued with high fraud rates. This is especially troubling as we wage a war on terror. The 9/11 staff report on terrorist travel made it clear that this dysfunction of bureaucracy aided the terrorists who wrought so much damage upon our Nation.

The fact is that many of the managers of ICE appear more focused on traditional Customs-oriented investigations than they are on enforcing the Immigration and Nationality Act to safeguard our Nation from terrorists and criminals who have become adept at hiding in plain sight by making use of gaping loopholes and deficiencies in the immigration bureaucracy that go undetected by the law enforcement agency that is supposed to enforce these laws.

Since the merger of legacy INS and legacy Customs into ICE, the new ICE special agents are no longer even being given Spanish language training, even though it's been estimated that some 80 percent of the illegal alien population is, in fact, Spanish-speaking. It is impossible to investigate individuals you are unable to communicate with, yet this critical language training program has been eliminated from the curriculum of new ICE agents. I have to believe that this represents more than a simple oversight on the part

of the leaders at the Academy; it underscores an absolute lack of desire to enforce the critical immigration laws.

If anything, our agents should be getting additional language training as we seek to uncover aliens operating within our Nation's borders who are a threat to our well-being. Strategic languages such as Arabic, Farsi and Urdu should be added to the curriculum, along with Chinese, Korean and other such languages; yet at present the curriculum not only fails to mandate any foreign language training, it doesn't even offer any foreign language training. Identity documents are the lynchpins that hold the immigration program together, yet incredibly, while other law enforcement agencies provide in-service document training to their personnel to help them recognize altered or counterfeited identity documents, ICE does not. Immigration law training is not as effective as it needs to be.

Besides the extreme lack of resources that have been the focus at previous hearings, we need to make certain that the people in charge of enforcing the immigration laws have a true understanding of the laws and have a clear sense of mission that many key managers appear to lack. At present, nearly every field office of ICE is headed by a Special Agent-in-Charge who came from the U.S. Customs Service and not from the former INS. The immigration laws are highly complex and require that the executives who are charged with leading the enforcement effort have a thorough understanding of the laws that they are responsible for enforcing. They should have real-world experience at investigating and aiding in the prosecution of criminal organizations that produce fraudulent documents, promote fraud schemes to circumvent the immigration laws, engage in large-scale human trafficking or the smuggling of criminal or terrorist aliens into the United States. They should also have real-world experience and understanding of the ways in which proper enforcement of the immigration laws can synergistically act as a force multiplier when ICE agents team up with law enforcement officers from other law enforcement agencies.

The effective enforcement of immigration laws can also help to cultivate informants to facilitate not only investigations into immigration law violations, but into other areas of concern, including narcotics investigations, gang investigations and terrorism investigations.

The current lack of leadership that is experienced in immigration law enforcement, the lack of effective training and the previously examined lack of resources have been disastrous for the enforcement of the immigration laws, thereby imperiling our Nation and our people.

It is vital that there be real accountability and real leadership where immigration is concerned. While Customs and Immigration were both border enforcement agencies, the border is where their similarities begin and end. I would, therefore, strongly recommend that the law enforcement officers charged with enforcing the immigration laws have a dedicated chain of command with a budget and training program that focuses on immigration. Certainly they can and should work cooperatively with the former Customs enforcement agents, but they need a separate identity in order to make certain that the current "Customization" of immigration law en

forcement stops immediately for the security of our Nation. The enforcement of our immigration statutes needs to be the priority, and not an afterthought.

I look forward to your questions.

Mr. HOSTETTLER. Thank you, Mr. Cutler.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Cutler follows:]

PREPARED STATEMENT OF MICHAEL W. CUTLER

Chairman Hostettler, Ranking member Jackson Lee, distinguished members of Congress, members of the panel, ladies and gentlemen. I welcome this opportunity to provide testimony today on the critical issue of the dual missions of the immigration enforcement agencies. While my prepared testimony will focus on ICE, It is my understanding that the inspections program of CBP is similarly hobbled in its ability to enforce the immigration laws.

For decades our nation had the reputation of being the "can do" nation. If we could dream it, we could accomplish it. Our nation's entry into both World Wars ended with victory. When President John F. Kennedy challenged our scientists and engineers to land men on the moon and return them safely to the earth within less than a decade, we again rose to the challenge. Today, our nation is challenged by many problems. The one issue that impacts so many of these other issues, the enforcement and administration of the immigration laws, eludes our purported efforts at solving it. For decades, the immigration crisis, and it is, indeed, a crisis; has grown more significant and its repercussions have increased exponentially. We are waging a war on terror and a war on drugs. The immigration component of this battle, in which the lives of not only our citizens, but the survival of our nation itself is on the line, appears to be insoluble. I am here today to tell you that we can control our nation's borders and we can effectively administer and enforce the immigration laws from within the interior of the United States.

In order to gain control of our borders and our immigration program, we need to see it as a system. We also need to understand that the interior enforcement program is critical to gaining control of our nation's borders. Nearly half of the illegal aliens did not enter the country by running the border, but rather by being admitted through a port of entry and then subsequently violating the terms of their admission. They stay longer than the period of time for which they were admitted, they seek unauthorized employment or they commit felonies. Special agents are desperately needed to not only seek to arrest illegal aliens, but to conduct field investigations to uncover immigration fraud to restore integrity to the benefits program which has been historically plagued with high fraud rates. This is especially troubling as we wage a war on terror. The 911 Staff Report on Terrorist Travel made it clear that this dysfunctional bureaucracy aided the terrorists who wrought so much destruction upon our nation. The fact is that many of the managers of ICE appear more focused on traditional Customs-oriented investigations than they are on enforcing the Immigration and Nationality Act to safeguard our nation from terrorists and criminals who have become adept at hiding in plain sight by making use of gaping loop-holes and deficiencies in the immigration bureaucracy that go undetected by the law enforcement agency that is supposed to enforce these laws.

Since the merger of Legacy INS and Legacy Customs into ICE, the new ICE special agents are no longer being given Spanish language training even though it has been estimated that some 80% of the illegal alien population is, in fact, Spanish speaking. It is impossible to investigate individuals you are unable to communicate with. Yet, this critical language-training program has been eliminated from the curriculum of the new ICE agents. I have to believe that this represents more than a simple oversight on the part of the leaders at the academy. It underscores an absolute lack of desire to enforce the critical immigration laws. If anything, our agents should be getting additional language training as we seek to uncover aliens operating within our nation's borders who are a threat to our well being. Strategic languages such as Arabic, Farsi and Urdu should be added to the curriculum along with Chinese, Korean and other such critical languages. Yet at present, the curriculum not only fails to mandate any foreign language training, it doesn't even offer any foreign language training.

Identity documents are the lynchpins that hold the immigration program together, yet incredibly, while other law enforcement agencies provide in-service document training to their personnel to help them recognize altered or counterfeit identity documents, ICE does not.

Immigration law training is similarly not as effective as it needs to be.