hsi works in close coordination with dhs components and u.s. interagency partners as well as counterparts in canadian law enforcement to target transnational criminal organizations travel, trade and finance. hsi applies a full range of innovative investigative techniques, including leading and participating in u.s. canadian task force says, undercover operations controlled deliveries, asset identification and an removal confidential informant and title iii electronic intercepts to identify and disrupt criminal operations. with nearly 1300 special agents and 100 research specialists operating along the border. in fiscal year 2014, hsi seven special offices covering the northern border often enjoyed or cooperative investigations with federal state local tribal and canadian law enforcement sees more than $237 million in cash and monetary instruments. nearly 26,000 pounds of marijuana. 2000 pounds cocaine, 719-pound of. 949 pounds of methamphetamine. nearly 1400 firearms. over 55,000 rounds of ammunition and about 8400 weapons. hsi special agents m

additionally hsi maintains the largest investigative footprint of any u.s.law enforcement agency in canada. hsi officers located in ottawa, vancouver, toronto and montreal further enhance national security by serving as ice's leewayiaison and counter parts to local government and law enforcement. our partnerships are essential to join operations and information sharing along the northern border and beyond. one example is how hsi participates in the fbi-led joint terrorism task force. it brings unique authorities and experience to the task force to help protect the homeland from threats to national security. hsi's flag ship task force program, bes, created in 2005 as a mechanism to address the threat of cross-border crime. in 2007, ice began to deploy bes units along the northern border. it provides a proven and flexible platform from which dhs investigates criminal organizations at our nations border. bes units differ from other task forces due to their proximity to the border and focus on cross-border criminal activity. kurntly there are four bes units oper

hsi in particular, obviously border patrol, all of these people and customs and border protection, all of us work together pursuant to the secretary's direction to try to make sure that these transnational drug smuggling gangs are not successful. we had a number of operations in that regard, operation identity crisis, all of these operations that focus on these kinds of smuggling operations of people and things. >> thank you. the gentleman's time has expired. and i recognize the gentleman from arizona. >> thank you, and thank you director saldana, i know your job is a difficult one and i would find formidable beyond words. i also know that a lot of the focus of this hearing has been the constitutional question in the president's actions and for a moment, if you could -- and i understand that you have suggested that perhaps his actions were within the constitutional purview. so for a moment let's put that aside. you took an oath to uphold the constitution as part of your oath. if there were a situation from this administration or other administration you found yourself serving, and ther

hsi focuses on criminal aspects. it is the area with which i dealt mostly as a united states attorney. a couple of words on successes. it is not the end of the story but the beginning of it. i look forward to reporting better things in the future. it removed nearly 316,000 individuals unlawfully present in the united states in 2014. more than 102,000 were apprehended and perhaps more portly 80 5% of those were immigrants previously convicted of a criminal offense. it demonstrates our renewed focus on the worst criminals convicted felons and gang members and others. the number 85% of immigrant who is are convicted of criminal offense is an 18% increase over prior years, 2011 in particular. hsi arrested more than 32,000 criminals and sees more than 1 -- narcotic spare 35,000 weapons. $772 in currency. the challenge, you all know the challenges and you know about last summer and the influx about my summer. the influx -- overwhelming and unexpected influx of families and children, which taxed the resources of many famili

hsi on the other hand focuses on criminal international criminal investigations, and anything dealingople and things in and out and within the country for that matter. while ero enforces civil ero enforces civil criminal aspects. that's the area in which ié@c85 obviously dealt mostly as united states attorney and assistant united states attorney. a couple of words on our successes. and this isn't the end of the story. this is the beginning of it. i look forward to reporting even better results in the future. ero removed nearly 316,000 individuals, unlawfullymdqjÑ present in the united states in 2014. more than 102,000 were apprehend apprehended in the interior of the united states and perhaps more importantly, 85% of those were immigrants previously convicted of a criminal offense. this demonstrates our renewed focus on the worst criminals. convicted felons gang members and other threats to our national security. that number, 85% of immigrant who is are convicted of criminal offense is an 18% increase over prior years, 2011 in particular. the challenge, you all know about my summer. t

while ero enforces civil litigation, hsi focuses on the criminal aspects. that's the area in which i obviously dealt mostly as united states attorney and assistant united states attorney. a couple of words on our successes. and this isn't the end of the story. this is the beginning of it. i look forward to reporting even better results in the future. ero removed nearly 316,000 individuals, unlawfully present in the united states in 2014. more than 102,000 were apprehended in the interior of the united states, and perhaps more importantly, 85% of those were immigrants previously convicted of a criminal offense. this demonstrates our renewed focus on the worst criminals. convicted felons, gang members and other threats to our national security. that number, 85% of immigrants who are convicted of criminal offense is an 18% increase over prior years, 2011 in particular. hsi, the investigative arm arrested more than 32,000 criminals, seized narcotics, 35,000 weapons and $772 million in currency. the challenges. you all know about last summer and the influx and o

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a substantial part of what we do in hsi because we're focused on trans national criminal investigations is in the drug area. i don't have a specific with respect to puerto rico. i can share those with you. but those outlineds are a great concern to me. because obviously it's harder to manage. but under the secretary community effort initiative, you mentioned the coast guard. you mentioned i.c.e., h.s.i. in particular obviously border patrol all of these people and customs and border protection, all of us work together pursuant to the secretary's direction to try to make sure that these trans national drug smuggling gangs are not successful. we had a number of operations in that regard operation ufa, operation identity crisis all of these operation that's go to focus on these kinds of smuggling operations and people and things. >> thank you. the gentleman's time has expired. i recognize the gentleman from arizona. >> well, thank you mr. chairman. thank you, director saldena for coming to be with us this day. i know your job a difficult one and it one that is foremidable beyond words. i a

through our document and benefit fraud task forces, through our participations, where we can bring hsi can bring our title eight civil immigration authority, our ability to investigate fraud or title 19 customs fraud you know, we're looking at all types of vulnerabilities, not just focusing on one. so whether that is people who are flying directly into the country, right into the interior, but maybe on a fraudulent visa or applied for asylum with fraudulent application, that's a big vulnerability and that's something that we take seriously. seriously, but also some of our other -- or other national security strategies are to make sure that sensitive technologies -- we use our ex port enforcement and counterproliferation program to make sure the sensitive technologies are not getting outside of the country -- >> again with a i'm not getting or hearing is some sense for how much of the problem is coming through our ports of entry and whether we have to beef up personnel or improve -- fund them in a deficit neutral fashion or whether they're coming in between the ports of entry. how do we

you mentioned i.c.e., hsi in particular. obviously border patrol. all of these people and customs and border protection, all of us work together pursuant to the secretary's direction to try to make sure that these transnational drug smuggling gangs are not successful and we've had a number of operations in that regard. operation coyote operation identity crisis, all of these operations that go to focus on these kinds of smuggling operations of people and things. >> thank you. >> the gentleman's time has expired. i recognize the gentleman from arizona. >> well, thank you, mr. chairman, and thank you, director saldana for coming to be with us this day. i know that your job is a difficult one, and it's one that i would find formidable beyond words. i also know that a lot of the focus of this hearing has been the constitutional question of the president's actions, and for a moment if you could -- and i understand that you have suggested that perhaps his actions were within the constitutional purview. so for a moment let's put that aside. you took an oat

one successful collaboration with partners is an hsi investigation that targeted a cocaine smuggling organization involved in the illicit movement of cocaine and bulk cash within canada, the u.s., and mexico. investigators estimated that this organization was responsible for the smuggling of cocaine into canada with a street value of over $60 million. through successful collaboration , a high-level target was sentenced in may of 2014 to 84 months of incarceration. this individual was arrested in 2010 with attempting to export cocaine across the lewiston bridge port of entry from new york into canada. the 97 kilograms of cocaine seizure is to this day the largest seizure in the history of the port of buffalo. in conclusion, ice remains dedicated committed to this mission. we look forward to continuing to work with this committee on these efforts. thank you for the opportunity to testify. i will be pleased to answer any questions. senator johnson: thank you. would you like to give your opening statement our wait until the end? >> i thought i was off the hook. i will give it now. member

about another 5,000 on the hsi side i believe. >> so about 11,000 total. >> agents. yes. or officers. >> you are saying that you are here to enforce the law, is that correct? >> yes, sir. >> yet you spend most of your time explaining to us why you don't need to enforce all of the laws, which seems really interesting to me. you gave the analogy of fraud cases. when you were a u.s. attorney you would have decided that maybe a $1 million fraud case is not a good thing to pursue because of your resources, but a $5 million fraud case would be something that would be worthwhile pursuing. is that correct? >> that's one example. >> let's use that example. what would have happened to the crime in your area, if you you would have announced that anything between zero and $5 million in fraud you would not be enforcing as a federal agent? as a federal officer? >> again i used that as an example. >> but it's a great example. >> well, we would work to try to find a local jurisdiction that might take the case but they are strapped as well. >> what if you had the sole authority as a u.s.

in that time had a great the great privilege of working with both homeland security investigations hsi agents couple of prayer -- a couple of whom are you here and enforceable and removal operation folks with respect to the removal and federal intervention in connection. during our time i personally observed the dedication commitment hard work of the women and men of immigration and customs enforcement all through the ranks, attorneys to all working very hard. it's a great privilege to continue my law enforcement career this capacity. i enforce over 400 laws in the work is the united states attorney. somebody stopped counting at 3,000. it's a difficult challenge to have. were up to that's. if you're for two as an opportunity -- i believe he did. i appreciate the work of this commission and no as you do that having a productive and collaborative relationship with you and the other committees of this congress is essential to work together to meet the responsibilities. my goal is to enhance ice has counterterrorism initiative to focus on mobile on high priority of individuals who threaten

> the joint task force are secretary johnson school for his unity of effort, essentially taking ice-hsi homeland security investigations, customs and border protection, and the united states coast guard and saying how can all three of you work better together, operate, and collaborate. and the coast guard is heading out out of florida come is heading up the caribbean, the florida gulf area. customs and border protection is heading up the land border from texas to california. and then homeland security investigations is really concentrating on going after particularly the human smuggling networks. so quite often the arrest of just a young person who's involved in smuggling a couple of people doesn't really get to the network. they have started but they are not in operation. we believe that i think sometime around july the joint task force is will work but the secretary gates myself, the coast guard commandant and the i.c.e. director an opportunity to really be a part of forming a unity of effort collaboration. so i think we are looking forward to that, and i think he's really to be comme

this is what, you know, federal agencies and investigative agencies like hsi are doing to target transnationallity. >> reporter: 913 people at least already have been charged with crimes. of those, of these 1200 arrested, martha, over 600 had violent crime histories. over 200 were foreign nationals. martha: wow. that involved local law enforcement in a lot of cities. what was the response? >> reporter: yeah, they're very happy. this was led by federal authorities from i.c.e., working with local law enforcement. you had a chance to see as we were there obviously watching this go down in southern california placentia in orange county the raid we saw, you could really see them work together and over the information before they went out. we have video from fort worth texas, some of the raids that took place there. you can watch the law enforcement agencies, in the past you heard criticisms when they don't work together. we saw them work together to take people off the streets. at the same time getting new information as they go after transnational crime. i have to tell you most of these arrests we

i think hsi, in particular, does a pretty good job when it comes to tracking inappropriate, illegal shipmentswe are also focused, frankly, on promoting lawful trade and travel, and we have had record numbers of imports inspections last year in that regard. but our efforts need to be focused on the items you referred to, as well. senator klobuchar: right, and we will be pursuing this as we move along in the next month or so but to me, we would get more bang for the buck if we did a better job enforcing the law when the shipments come in, and it seems to me pretty easy to find a bunch of steel rebar when we are able to find drugs in small containers of things. if you have got a shipment of steel, there has got to be a way to find it and track it, and i think it would be a very smart way of enforcing these laws. the last one, the victims of domestic violence and trafficking, i know you are supportive of comprehensive immigration reform, and we worked on this as part of the bill that passed the senate, but on the first a of the fiscal year, they feel their limit of 10,000 visas. the vermont servi

. >> rally for the hsi. a lot of pent up demand for equities in hong kong. there's a three day holiday since thursday so catch up after the holiday. also catch up with the rally we have been seeing on the composite as well and more flows on the stock connect which is good news. i wanted to talk about japan because the boj staying the course keeping policy unchanged. but what was interesting was that we did have the board member propose tapering. this is interesting. asset purchases at the rate of 45 trillion yen compared to the current rate of 80 trillion. that was voted down of course but it does tell you that perhaps the boj is hitting the law of diminishing returns here. remember the macro has been deteriorating. zero inflation. it wasn't a great deal to write home about so it's conceivable that we could still see the boy come to the table with further action and expanding their balance sheet in addition maybe toward the end of this quarter. i wouldn't rule that out. fresh two year highs. seem to be quite agnostic about the inaction in the boj and as you

essentially taking age, hsi homeland security investigation, customs and border protection in the unitedates coast guard and saying, how can all three of you work better together, cooperate and collaborate in the coast guard is setting up florida the caribbean of florida the gulf area customs and border protection is having of the land border from texas to california and homeland security investigations is concentrating on going after particularly the human smuggling networks. quite often the arrest of just a young person involved in smuggling a couple of people is not really get to the network. they have started but are not in operation, we believe that sometime around july the joint task forces will work but the secretary gave myself, the coast guard commandant and the ice director an opportunity to really be a part of forming that unity of effort collaboration. so i think we're looking forward to that. i think he is really to be commended. >> in the very back. >> yes. regarding the apprehension of minors it and accompany minors and family units at the border you mentioned that the exp

attorneys office, for sentencing and those investigations continued with hsi. >> anyone else? >> i think the chief just laid out the real commitment from border patrol to address this issue. i think if we are going to have consensus, i would want to hope that the consensus is we have a zero percent death rate in our deserts and mountains. and i think this particular issue, how to address this horrific consequence of our enforcement policies has to be addressed from multiple sectors, and we have enjoyed a great working relationship with the tucson border patrol chief and civil society groups there to look at the patterns of crossings, to do the mapping of deaths and to make sure that resources are deployed by not only the law enforcement but by civil society groups to prevent deaths. i think this is one important piece that we need to have a conversation on. folks in civil society groups and faith-based groups border patrol, agree that is something we work together to address and get to that goal of making sure that not a single person dies because there was no resource availab

one of the things i wanted to expand on what chief fisher said, was in addition to the ibets, our hsi border enforcement security task forces are doing they're making a big difference. and one of the they're the operators on the ground who are actually out doing the conducting the investigations making the search wants on both sides of the border and making the arrests and identifying it and disrupting and dismantling the transnational criminal organizations. it's a great model. it is a model where we're allowed to where we give our title 19 cross designation or essentially deputize canadian law enforcement and local canadian law enforcement as customs officers. they can come into the united states and actually conduct side by side with us joint investigations under our close supervision but to have that connectivity investigator to investigator agent to agent of coordination collaboration and just working the cases together, it is proven to be a very successful model. >> and these are all initiatives that canada is open to and they are working well with the united states, is that a c

united states attorney i had the great privilege of working with both homeland security investigation, hsi agents, a couple of whom are here today and with the enforcement and removal operation folks with respect to removals and the need for federal intervention in connection with some of those. during that time i personally observed the dedication, commitment hard work of the women and men and customs inforcement all through the ranks. deportation officers, international support staffs, attorneys, all of them working hard to keep our homelands safe. as was mentioned earlier ice does have over 400 laws. in my work as the united states attorney, somebody stopped counting at 3,000. that united states attorneys enforced a difficult challenge to have so many statutes but we're up to that. refer to that as an opportunity representative conniers, i believe you did. i consider it a privilege. i appreciate the importance of this mission. i ensure you i know as you do that having a productive and collaborative relationship with you and the committees of congress is essential for us to work together