mr. spero: yes, senator. distinguished members, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you to discuss isis efforts to improve security along the northern border. dhs principal investigative agency, investigations disposition to leverage is broad statutory authority to support order enforcement. it works in close ordination with dhs components and u.s. inter-agency partners, as well as our counterparts in canadian law on arsenic, to target transnational -- canadian -- it applies a full range of tech weeks, including leading and for dissipating in joint u.s. and canadian task forces, undercover operations, controlled deliveries identification and title iii electronic intercepts to identify and disrupt criminal operation. nearly 1300 special agents and 100 intelligence research specialists operating along the border. in fiscal year 2014, the seven special agents in charge officers covering the northern border often in joint cooperative investigations with auto, state local, tribal, and can

mr. spero same question please. mr. spero: senator carper, i had a little extra time to formula and i guess the best way to describe it or the way i look at it is it is not necessarily how do we take what is working on the northern border and bring it down to the southern border, but it is an exchange of best practices across both borders as well as the interior of the united states, and i use the border enforcement security task forces as the best example. it was initially created in laredo in 2005 2 fight the violence associated with the transnational criminal organizations that were affecting specifically the southern border. that model, the success of that model with the collaboration and cooperation, working together on the cases was then brought up to the northern border, and now we have best task forces. i happen to oversee two in my aor of buffalo, the buffalo best as well as the miss you know us, but at the same time, it just does not stop there. -- as well as the messino best. we had a great framework to start

did i say that right among mr. spero? spero, okay. >> chairman johnson, ranking member carper, distinguished members, thank you for the opportunity to assess the efforts to improve security along the border. as dhs principal investigative homeland security investigation is positioned to leverage its broad statutory authority to support order enforcement. 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 nort

. >> okay, yes go ahead mr. spero. >> thank you, senator. just to expand on chief fisher and commissioner wagner's answer, one thing i would like to call attention to is we had talked about, i believe mr. hartunian talked about a lot of the leadership committees and collaboration that is going on whether the beyond the border executive group, or the cross border crime forum or bolt. those are, as i said before very, you know, those are good -- great ways for us to strategize, identify the threats, both, you know, interacting with our canadian partners. but one of the things i want to expand on what chief fisher said in addition to the ibets, our hsi border enforcement security task forces are making a big difference. one of the -- they're the operators on the ground who are actually out doing the -- conducting the investigations, making the search warrants on both sides of the border and making the arrests and identifying and disrupting and dismantling the transnational criminal organizations. it is a great model. it is a model where we're al

am i pronouncing that right mr. spero. >> yes senator, spero. >> mr. pero. >> chairman johnson, ranking member carper and distinguished members, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you discuss ice's efforts to improve security along the northern border. as dhs principal investigative agency, this position to lev ranl broad statutory authority to enforce border enforcement. we work with u.s. interagency partners as well as counterparts in canadian law enforcement targ targeted in travel, trade and finance. hsi provides a full range of techniques including leading and participating in joint u.s. canadian task forces, undercover operations, controlled deliveries asset identification and removal, informants and title 3 electronic intercepts. we have nearly 1,300 special agents and 100 intelligence research specialists operating along the northern border. in fiscal year 2014, hsi's seven special agent enforced officers covering the northern border koorpt in investigation with state, local tribal and canadian law enforcement seized more than $237 m

mr. spero. >> yes, senator. thank you. you know from our investigation then again, we get a lot of referrals and a lot of case or comes from referrals from the ports of entry or the custom border patrol, but not all investigations are referrals. some are firmer on confidential in irvine or other federal state and local part is even we understand one day the vulnerability could be a support. one of the ways we look at national security is it is our job to make sure we are investigating criminal fraud cases when it comes to people at either pretending or making themselves appear to be eligible for an entry visa, whether that is a student who is coming in under a different name or doesn't intend to go to school or whether it is a worker who claims they are going to be working not a particular job in a particular interest tree and purchased the visa or whether it is in the interior where the frog sirs are trying to go to one of our other sister rations these to obtain a permanent residence or eventually u.s. citizenship by any

am i pronouncing that right, mr. spero? mr. spero: yes, senator. distinguished members, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you to discuss isis efforts to improve security along the northern border.