End of Fiscal Year 19 Stats for Customs and Border Protection San Diego

San Diego, California – U.S. Customs and Border Protection Briefing on Border Security and End of Year Enforcement Statistics. Remarks by

Pete Flores, Director of Field Operations, San Diego
Kathleen Scudder, Acting Deputy Chief Patrol Agent San Diego Sector
Timothy Sutherland, Director San Diego Air and Marine Operations

Video by Mani Albrecht
U.S. Customs and Border Protection
Office of Public Affairs

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Transcript

Welcome to the San Ysidro Port of Entry and the CBP briefing on border security and end of year statistics for fiscal year 19. We will begin with remarks by our CBP leadership. First will be Pete Flores, Director of Field Operations for San Diego. Then Kathleen Scudder, Acting Chief Patrol Agent for the San Diego Sector. And Tim Sutherland, Director of Air and Marine Operations for California. After their remarks we will open it up for questions and answers. And now I’d like to introduce Director of Field Operations Pete Flores.

Well good morning, thanks for all of you to be here, being here today. I got a little bit of a cold so hopefully this will go well for us today. I’m Pete Flores, the Director of Field Operations for San Diego Field Op so I’m responsible for all the ports of entry in the San Diego and Imperial county areas, which includes all the legal border crossings between the California and Mexico. I’m joined today by my colleagues within CBP here in San Diego, Acting Chief of San Diego Sector Border Patrol, Kathleen Scudder, and Director, San Diego branch of CBP’s Air and Marine Operations, Tim Sutherland. Our mission is simple to state and complex to complete. It’s border security. Every day the men and women of CBP are at work ensuring the efficient flow of lawful trade and travel that is so vital to a strong economy. While enforcing hundreds of difference of laws for multiple federal, state and local agencies but ultimately working for the American people. We often talk about how border security is national security. How stopping illegal activity here at the border protects cities and communities throughout the nation. But here in San Diego our local communities know the impact better than most. Today we’re gonna talk about our local statistics and the extraordinary job the men and women of CBP did during fiscal year 2019, all while facing unprecedented crisis on the southwest border. This past year CBP officers within the San Diego field office seized more than 104 tons worth of narcotics, including almost 112,500 pounds of marijuana, an increase of 6% from last year. More than 12,000 pounds of cocaine, an increase of 16%. More than 2,500 pounds of heroin, a decrease of 10%. Almost 1,500 pounds of fentanyl, an increase of 19%. And more than 80,500 pounds of methamphetamine, an increase of 66%. In total, CBP officers at the border crossings between California and Mexico encountered 35,000 individuals who were inadmissible to the U.S. Of those 35,000, more than 2,250 were unaccompanied children traveling without a parent or legal guardian. That represents a 28% increase over the previous year. Many of the inadmissible individuals our officers encounter are presenting themselves to CBP officers without the necessary legal status or accompanied documents that would allow them to enter the United States. However, we do continue to see other types of illegal entry attempts at our border crossings. Including inadmissible individuals attempting to use fraudulent or falsified documents, imposters attempting to use legitimate document that do not belong to them. And inadmissible individuals who attempt to enter without inspection attempting to avoid CBP officers altogether. The most dangerous of these are those hiding from CBP officers, such as in a car, in the trunk of a car or in its compartment especially built in a car. One notable incident this year, a driver when stopped by CBP officers fired a weapon during his attempt to flee. Two people hid in the bed of the vehicle, two people were hidden in the bed of the vehicle he was driving. We have had other encounters with individuals found by CBP officers in compartments that they couldn’t get out of on their own, facing dehydration and other serious health issues. It’s important to remember the driving force behind virtually all these threats are transnational criminal organizations. Every smuggling event is a transaction for them intended to enrich the criminal heads of these organizations without regard to the toxic effects on the communities on both sides of the border. We will remain committed to securing our borders and protecting our communities. Our officers have the incredible daily responsibility of inspecting all people, cargo and conveyances that enter the United States. While the vast majority of those individuals we encounter are legitimate travelers, our officers have to continually be alert for those who intend to do us harm. This past fiscal year this included stopping 1,431 individuals with active warrants for their arrest. The threat picture is more than just national security, it also involves our economic security. Ensuring the efficient supply chain and safe and efficient international travel is imperative for a strong economy. CBP officers in the San Diego field office process more than 78 million travelers, almost one in every five travelers who enters the U.S. does so through our field office. In terms of trade, CBP officers process more than 53 billion in imports and screen more than 1.4 million trucks, ensuring that the goods coming into the country are safe and legal. CBP also collected approximately 285 million in duties, taxes and other fees in FY 19. Behind these numbers are the people who get the job done. The men and women of CBP, hard working professionals, who have been asked to operate in difficult circumstances. Even here at San Ysidro, our busiest port in the nation, our facilities are not intended for the kinds of conditions we are facing. As CBP senior leadership noted earlier this week in El Paso, no immigration system in the world is designed to handle the volumes of families, unaccompanied children, and members of other vulnerable populations we have seen here in San Diego and along the southwest border. Our secured secondary areas are more like police stations and shelters. They are not designed for holding people for long periods of time and they are especially unsuitable for families and children. Most immigrants pay criminal organizations to help them get here. Many human smugglers use immigrants as drug mules and subject them to extortion, assault and sexual exploitation. Immigrants arrive sick, injured or traumatized. We must remember this humanitarian crisis created a security crisis. We saw this in particular last November when we had to close the gates at San Ysidro in response to a mass of people rushing the port of entry. This crisis quickly strained our resources. We continue to work to ensure that even with these unprecedented immigration flows we can keep traffic flowing for our border community, keeping lanes open and steady hours for commercial traffic. As noted by CBP officials earlier this week in El Paso, the engagement with the governor of Mexico has helped significantly. Still in the midst of this turmoil, under extraordinary and challenging circumstances, our officers went above and beyond to assist those in need, responding to 1,222 medical assists at our local ports of entry this past year. Also want to emphasize at this point the United States is a welcoming nation. We recognize the importance of international trade, travel, migration and welcome those who have respected our laws and legally sought entry into the United States using one of our ports of entry. But for those who wish to ignore our laws, our message is this, stop. We will not tolerate or ignore those who attempt to circumvent our laws or intend to do us harm. As you’ve already heard today, our mission is incredibly complex and we have not yet touched upon the other aspects of the daily work we do here at the border. Our uniformed personnel and thousands of career professionals who support them keep our country safe in countless ways. With that I’d like to turn it over to Acting Chief Scudder.

Good morning. Thank you, Director Flores and thank you all for being here today. The men and women of CBP in San Diego are the backbone of local border security. They work the front line day in and day out with vigilance, integrity and service of country. Oftentimes at great personal sacrifice. Their efforts are the reason we have the level of operational control that we do and the reason the border region is thriving. During fiscal year 2019, San Diego Sector continued with its risk-based strategy, utilizing the three pillars of information, integration and rapid response. Border control agents nationwide apprehended over 851,000 people during FY 19. Locally, San Diego Sector agents made 58,049 arrests. This figure represents a 50% increase over FY 18 apprehensions. This increase can be directly attributed to the dramatic influx of family units and unaccompanied children from the caravan. San Diego Sector agents processed a total of 3,335 unaccompanied children this fiscal year compared to 2,491 last year. Sector agents also processed 16,174 family units, nearly quadrupling FY 18 numbers. San Diego Sector realized its highest numbers of apprehensions from countries other than Mexico in the history of tracking statistics for this population, with a total of 27,255 arrests. This is a 137% increase over the previous year. Managing these unprecedented numbers required us to task a substantial percentage of our workforce with humanitarian duties to include hospital watch, care and feeding, and medical screenings. Things we were neither budgeted nor prepared for. However, our agents persevered, oftentimes bringing items from their homes to care for small children and babies in custody. In San Diego Sector our threat environment is diverse. Like land border activity, maritime smuggling events increased during FY 19 by 59%. And through our partnerships with the U.S. Coast Guard, CBP Air and Marine Operations, and collaboration with local and state partners, San Diego Border Patrol agents took part in 194 maritime events, amounting to 660 apprehensions. Despite all of those challenges San Diego Sector agents seized 3,273 pounds of marijuana, 1,284 pounds of cocaine, 3,918 pounds of methamphetamine, 288 pounds of heroin and 108 pounds of fentanyl. That amount of fentanyl is enough to provide a fatal dose to 24 million people. These results were not accomplished without significant challenges and enormous dangers. As wall construction continues, criminal organizations grow frustrated by their inability to move their illicit cargo into our communities. In San Diego Sector there were a total of 156 assaults on agents in the performance of their duties. Agents endured 72 assaults the prior fiscal year. Agents regularly risk their own lives to aid distressed aliens, some of whom knowingly put themselves in harm’s way to avoid apprehension. San Diego agents rescued 20 people during FY 19. Due to the rugged and unforgiving terrain, most of these rescues are highly complicated and require specially trained search and rescue units to deploy. A law enforcement event oftentimes shifts very quickly to humanitarian life-saving effort. On Valentine’s Day in 2019, in the midst of a severe winter storm, and after performing at least one rescue already that evening, agents were notified of two underage brothers who were lost in a remote and mountainous area east of Chula Vista. When agents found the brothers one of the young men was unresponsive and suffering from hypothermia. One agent used his outer clothing to wrap the unresponsive subject while laying down next to him body to body, in order to transfer his body heat, making every effort to save the young man until further support arrived. Six weeks later this young man recovered and was able to reunite with his family. This is just one example of what we do every single day. During FY 19 San Diego benefited from significant new border wall construction. With increased infrastructure, programs like the migrant protection protocols and support from foreign governments we have seen a significant decrease in apprehensions over the last six months. In March of 2019 San Diego Sector had a monthly high of 6,892 arrests, which dropped to 3,472 arrests in September. In December of 2018 our other than Mexican apprehensions were 73% of our total apprehensions. By September of 2019 that number had dropped to 18%. This clearly affirms that the aforementioned projects, programs and partnerships are having the desired effect of deterring and impeding illegal border crossings. Before I close, I would like to recognize the agents of San Diego Sector for their outstanding work ethic over the last year and always. I’m extremely proud to share that 14 San Diego Sector border patrol agents have been nominated for distinguished service awards and will be honored at the DHS Secretary’s Awards Ceremony later this month. This past year has taken a tremendous toll on our agency, our agents and their families. Nonetheless we continue protecting America every day. The results noted here today are a direct reflection of the hard work the professional men and women of CBP do while serving honorably and courageously protecting our communities. Thank you. Now I’d like to turn the podium over to Director Sutherland.

Good morning and thanks for coming out today. I’m Tim Sutherland, Director or Air and Marine Operations for CBP here in California. And for those of you that are not familiar with Air and Marine, we are the nation’s leading aviation and maritime law enforcement organization. Our primary mission is detection, monitoring and interdiction of inbound smuggling threats to the United States of America. We do this daily, alongside of Office of Field Operations and United States Border Patrol. We do it at the ports, at the land in between those ports, and along the entire U.S. coastline. During the past fiscal year our air and marine agents flew more than 8,700 hours and we floated more than 3,700 hours securing the borders in southern California. During their operations our crews worked with partner agencies to seize more than 4,000 pounds of methamphetamines. We apprehended more than 2,300 individuals trying to enter the U.S. illegally and arrested over 100 other individuals accused of breaking the law. San Diego is a unique environment to operate in. We have urban areas, mountain, desert terrain and of course our beautiful southern California coastline. Our agents continue to work some of the most dangerous and remote smuggling routes to ensure that illegal activity is stopped. Those in trouble are rescued. And the border remains secure. I would like to share a story that highlights the incredible work that our CBP agents do day in and day out as we work together to secure our borders. On September 2nd, 2019, three Air and Marine agents and one Border Patrol agent working together encountered a sinking vessel in the San Diego Bay. We immediately conducted life-saving operations. The agents provided life vests and pulled nine people to safety from the water. Coast Guard and San Diego Harbor Police also participated, and they assisted with the transport of nine people and the recovery of the sinking vessel. Not more than 30 minutes after that event took place those agents received another radio call advising of a vessel fire out in the Coronado Bridge area. The crew activated their emergency lights and sirens and quickly headed out to that area where there was a 38-foot vessel billowing smoke from the engine room. They quickly jumped onboard, they rescued three individuals from that vessel, brought them back over to the CBP vessel where they could be put safely. Then those agents turned right back around, got onto that burning vessel and put out that fire down in the engine room. Later the Coast Guard and the Harbor Police showed up, they were able to help transport that burning vessel back to the shore after the fire had been put out and took those people back to the shore where they could be safely treated. Two of our CBP agents that day did end up going to the hospital for treatment but were released without any major injuries. As I stated before our agents work in a dangerous and sometimes very unique environment with our primary mission to ensure that illegal activity is stopped. That if there is somebody in trouble, we are there to rescue them and the border remains secure. I am honored to have been here today to have this opportunity to let our local community know the results of the hard work that our agents were able to do during this fiscal year. Thank you, thank you very much.

Thank you, sir. We will begin to take your questions now. When you are called upon, please state your name and media outlet and if you would please limit your question to one question at a time so that others have a chance to ask their question. Thank you.

[Female Crowd Member] …Regional 10. I’d like to ask, I understand that not all of the primary border wall is the bollard… (audio fades out)

So, I don’t have the exact percentage of the border wall was completed except the primary border wall replacement was completed in August except for one very small portion. It is, I believe, all bollard, is that correct? Yeah. So, it’s 14 miles of bollard fencing. And then just some small areas that have to be put together a little bit later.

[Female Crowd Member] Thank you.

[Male Crowd Member] Hi Elliott (audio fades out). (audio not captured by microphone) Can you talk about the limit designed to be 72 hours (audio not captured). Can you talk about where you are right now on the average… (audio not captured).

Sure, so, our attempt as I mentioned earlier right, our facilities are short term facilities, that’s what they’re built to be and that’s the intent. Our goal in what we attempt to do is get individuals out of our custody as quickly as possible. We are kinda that processing area. First point of contact. And from there, depending on what the circumstances we’re dealing with will depend on what happens next to that individual that we have in our custody. So we make, every day there are people who are moved out of our custody within that 72 hour mark that we attempt to strive to get to every day, but every day I will tell you, just from a OFO standpoint, that every day we’ll have somebody that goes over that 72 hours and that could be for a number of reasons. That could be because of the medical conditions, medical care, hospital watch. That could be for processing, for waiting for what the next step of the process is, whether they’re going into detention or where that is. So that translates to different TID time what we call them, time in detention, times every single day for us, but we will have folks in our custody over 72 hours probably be every single day for us. But that time has come down as the numbers continue to come down for us, as we see the numbers drop for us, those numbers continue to come down as far as days in custody, time in custody.

I’m sorry, go ahead.

[Officer Off Camera] Nope that’s fine.