One of the great privileges of being the Commissioner of United States Customs and Border Protection is the opportunity to participate in historic occasions like this one.

This is a great day. A great day for New Mexico—for Artesia, Roswell, and Carlsbad—a great day for the Border Patrol—because today, for the first time in Border Patrol history, all Border Patrol training is consolidated at one facility—here at the new Border Patrol Academy at FLETC in Artesia, New Mexico.

This is an idea whose time had come. It didn’t make sense to have training for Border Patrol Agents fragmented in three different locations, as was the case when the Border Patrol was part of the INS.

From the day the Border Patrol became part of CBP, it was clear to me that we needed a permanent home base for our Border Patrol training. We have found that home here at Artesia.

This morning I had a chance to tour the facility. I saw the campus—the IDENT and IAFIS labs—the shooting and driving ranges. And, I was pleased to have the chance to say hello to Basic Agent Trainee Class #583 in your homeroom.

And, I can tell you I’m very impressed with what I see here now, and what I envision for the future as we work with Senator Domenici and Director Patrick to expand these training facilities to meet the Border Patrol’s all-important border control and homeland security missions.

I expect that construction will begin in December on new classrooms and office space, and we will begin building a new aquatic training facility early next year. We are also developing a new master plan for Border Patrol training that includes, among other things, more dorm space and new language arts building.

There are a number of individuals here today who were instrumental in making the dream of this consolidated training academy here at Artesia a reality.

Let me begin by recognizing and welcoming Senator Domenici. Senator Domenici has been a leading advocate of federal law enforcement training during his distinguished 32-year career in the U.S. Senate. He has been an enthusiastic supporter of establishing the Border Patrol Academy here at Artesia, New Mexico. And, he was instrumental in my decision to locate the Border Patrol Academy here. It’s an honor to have you with us today, Senator.

I also want to welcome staff from the Senate Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Homeland Security—especially Rebecca Davies, the Subcommittee Clerk, who is a strong supporter of both U. S. Customs and Border Protection and FLETC.

I am pleased that David Aguilar, Chief of the Border Patrol, is here. Chief Aguilar is an outstanding leader of the Border Patrol, and is a key member of my leadership team at CBP Headquarters in Washington.

Although he could not be here today, I want to thank Chief Tom Walters, the Acting Assistant Commissioner for CBP’s Office of Training and Development, for his efforts to ensure that all CBP law enforcement personnel receive the best training possible.

I’m especially grateful to FLETC and our partner, and a good friend, Director Connie Patrick, whose unprecedented cooperation and leadership enabled us to move our Border Patrol training to Artesia and establish the Border Patrol Academy here.

And I want to thank her talented staff, particularly Assistant Director Ray Havens and Deputy Assistant Director Woody Wright, for providing outstanding support for this effort.

And, we all owe Deputy Assistant Chief Charlie Whitmire a huge debt of gratitude for being the driving force behind getting the Border Patrol Academy up and running in a matter of weeks, and for overseeing all the many details necessary to welcome Border Patrol Basic Agent Trainee Class #583.

I also appreciate the fact that we have so many leaders from law enforcement and the local community here.

Thank you all for your support.

A New Beginning: A Proud Past

Border Patrol Class #583 represents a new beginning for the Border Patrol, and I’m delighted to be here to personally welcome this new class to the CBP family on your very first day of training.

It is gratifying to see outstanding young people, like yourselves, step forward to serve your country, especially at this time. Step forward to make the commitment to a noble calling—that of Border Patrol Agent.

You—all of you—are making history!

Session #583 will be the first class of Border Patrol Agents to graduate from the newly consolidated CBP Border Patrol Academy here at Artesia.

You are becoming part of a long and proud law enforcement tradition, a legacy that reaches back nearly a 100 years—to its unofficial beginnings in the early 1900s—when a group of about 75 mounted guards were assigned to patrol our southern border. And it was eighty years ago, in 1924, that Congress officially created the U.S. Border Patrol.

From those early beginnings, the Border Patrol has become one of the largest and most important federal law enforcement organizations—with more than 11,000 of the best trained, best equipped law enforcement agents anywhere in the world.

Homeland Security: Our Mission

The U.S. Border Patrol has always had an important and difficult mission—to safeguard more than 6,000 miles of border we share with Mexico and Canada—

a daunting task, to be sure.

U.S. Border Patrol Agents guard the 2,000-mile border between Mexico and the U.S.— a border that stretches from the Pacific Ocean at San Diego, California, to the Gulf of Mexico at Brownsville, Texas.

And to our north, the Border Patrol guard the 4,000 miles of border with Canada—from Point Roberts, Washington, along the 49th parallel to the Great Lakes to the forests of Maine.

Although the bulk of the Border Patrol is on our southern border, since 9/11, we have tripled the number of Border Patrol Agents at our northern border. We now have over 1,000 Border Patrol Agents stationed at the northern border.

And, while controlling America’s borders has always been important, in the post- 9/11 era—in this age of global terrorism—the Border Patrol’s mission is essential to our national security.

In fact, the mission of the Border Patrol is more important now than at any time in the history of our country.

Last month, we marked the third anniversary of 9/11—a day that is a somber reminder that our lives and our nation have changed forever. 9/11 also changed the way we view national security.

For two centuries, America had been lulled into a false sense of security, feeling protected by oceans to our east and west and by peaceful neighbors to our north and south. But 9/11 shattered that illusion—and it thrust new realities and new responsibilities on all of us—but particularly those charged with protecting the borders of our nation.

9/11 was a jolting wake up call to the United States—that we must do everything we can reasonably and responsibly do to prevent further terrorist attacks on American soil.

And this is where you—and all of U.S. Customs and Border Protection—come in.

Because the best way to prevent another 9/11-type attack is to prevent the terrorist operatives from getting into our country in the first instance.

You are training to become modern-day centurions, charged with guarding our country from all those who seek to harm us—or violate our laws—whether international terrorists, or drug smugglers, illegal entrants, or other criminals that intend to break our nation’s laws, or who are likely to commit crimes in our country.

* * * * *

After World War II, when our nation was faced with the prospect of a Cold War and the rising threat of communism, our government created the CIA, the Department of Defense, and the National Security Council.

And, in the wake of 9/11, President Bush recognized that the policies and government structure that had served us during the Cold War wouldn’t work against the threat of international terrorism.

We needed a new strategy to deal with a new and different enemy—a new “ism”—global terrorism.

One of the most important steps the President and the Congress took to protect America—our homeland—against the threat of international terrorism was to establish the Department of Homeland Security, under the superb leadership of Secretary Tom Ridge.

And one of the big ideas of the Department of Homeland Security was to create one border agency within that Department. That agency is U.S. Customs and Border Protection—C-B-P.

CBP was created in March 2003 by unifying into one agency all frontline personnel at our ports of entry—customs, immigration and agriculture inspectors—and all the agents of the U. S. Border Patrol.

In other words, the entire Border Patrol was transferred from the INS, where it had been for many years—to CBP—to create one unified and united border agency for our country.

With the creation of CBP, for the first time in our country’s history, all agencies of the United States government with authorities and responsibilities at our nation’s borders were—and are—unified into a single federal agency—an agency responsible for managing, controlling and securing our nation’s borders for all purposes—at and between our official ports of entry.

Customs and Border Protection has 42,000 employees—and constitutes about one fourth of all of the employees of the Department of Homeland Security, which is not surprising when one considers the importance of the security of our borders to the security of our homeland.

You will hear this from your instructors, but I want you to hear it directly from me: The priority mission of all of CBP—all of the officers of CBP at our ports of entry and all our CBP Border Patrol Agents—is homeland security.

For the unified border agency of our country, that means—the priority mission is preventing terrorists and terrorist weapons from getting into the United States. This is a mission that unites all of CBP.

No other agency of the federal government has a more important mission. And no other federal agency is in a better position to prevent terrorists, like al Qaeda, from carrying out attacks in the United States than CBP. Because the best way to prevent a terrorist attack is to prevent terrorists—and their weapons—from entering the United States in the first place.

And I’m confident that you—and your CBP colleagues—will do everything within your power to prevent this from happening!

While our priority mission is an anti-terrorist mission, our traditional missions remain important, as well. And for the Border Patrol that means apprehending those who try to illegally enter our country and those who smuggle them or illegal drugs into the United States.

And, the Border Patrol does a great job, as the statistics make clear.

For Fiscal Year 2004, that just ended on September 30th, the Border Patrol apprehended 1,158,500 aliens attempting to illegally enter the United States.

During the same 12 months, the Border Patrol intercepted and seized 1,363,000 pounds of illegal drugs. That’s over 1.3 million pounds of illegal drugs that did not reach the streets of the cities and towns across America.

A Strategy for the Border

The terrorist threat to our nation is real—and continuing. It’s likely to be with us for a long time.

Some have suggested that defeating global terrorism will take as long as it took for us to win the Cold War.

Because we are now a single, unified border agency, for the first time, we have been able to develop a comprehensive national strategy for securing our borders—at and between the ports of entry.

We weren’t able to do this before CBP, when border responsibilities were fragmented among four agencies in three different departments of government.

The Border Patrol has a clear strategic goal: to establish operational control of the border of the United States. All of our efforts must be focused on this goal.

The Border Patrol’s goal—obtaining control of the border between the ports of entry—is a key component of CBP’s overall strategic plan. It complements the work being done by your brother officers at the ports of entry.

The Border Patrol’s National Strategy consists of four objectives:

First, to establish substantial probability of apprehending terrorists and others attempting to illegally enter between ports of entry;

Second, to deter illegal entries through technology and heightened enforcement presence;

Third, to arrest and prosecute to the fullest extent of the law smugglers of human beings, illegal drugs and other contraband; and

Fourth, to protect America by reducing crime in border communities and throughout the land.

Training America’s Frontline

We will use sophisticated detection, sensoring, and surveillance technology—and well-trained Border Patrol Agents—to achieve these goals and take control of our borders.

I cannot stress enough the value of training to achieve our strategic goals.

For the first time, Border Patrol Agent Trainees are receiving anti-terrorism training—training that is vital to securing our borders and meeting our national security mission.

Radiation Detection Devices

This academy will put our Border Patrol Agents in the fast lane for new technologies.

For the first time, we are training Border Patrol Agents in radiation detection technology and isotope identifiers, which are used at the interior Border Patrol checkpoints as a line of defense against radiological weapons.

Border Patrol Agents are being equipped with PRDs—personal radiation devices—a handheld unit about the size of a pager—that can detect even trace amounts of radioactive materials.

Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS)

Technology to help perform our mission includes biometric identification technology, like IAFIS, which I’m proud to say is now fully deployed at all 136 Border Patrol stations. Training for IAFIS and IDENT will take place right here.

IAFIS enables Patrol Agents to search the FBI fingerprint databases to quickly determine whether an apprehended illegal alien has a criminal record or is wanted, so we can take appropriate action.

As a direct result of the deployment of IAFIS technology, over the past year, Border Patrol Agents have arrested more than 8,000 aliens who had criminal records for such things as murder, kidnapping, sexual assaults, robbery, and drug trafficking.

Interrogation Techniques

We are developing training classes in anti-terrorism interrogation techniques.

This kind of training increases our chances of recognizing, identifying and apprehending individuals from special interest countries who may be potential terrorist operatives. In the last fiscal year, Border Patrol apprehended 682 illegal aliens from special interest countries who were illegally attempting to enter the U.S.

Expedited Removal Authority

Along with anti-terrorism training, we are making sure that the Border Patrol has the authorities needed to do the job.

And that’s why I fought to get expedited removal authority for the Border Patrol. And we have it now.

This authority gives us the ability to more efficiently and expeditiously remove illegal aliens from this country—without the extended detention, delays and lengthy deportation proceedings.

Conclusion

This facility—and the important training that will occur within its walls—will ensure that our Border Patrol Agents are prepared to meet the challenges of the 21st Century.

Who would have imagined—even a few years ago—that U. S. Border Patrol Agents at our interior checkpoints would be trained and equipped with state-of-the-art equipment to detect and prevent radiological weapons from reaching our urban areas?

Who would have thought Border Patrol Agents would receive specialized interrogation training to be able to identify Middle Easterners claiming to be from Mexico, in order to protect our nation from potential terrorist threats?

But this is the reality of our world today, and Border Patrol training will prepare our Agents—all of you—to meet the challenges presented in this age of global terrorism.

I have no doubt that you will rise to meet the challenges—and the responsibilities—ahead of you.

For those of you who make the grade and successfully complete the training here at Artesia—for those who earn the privilege of wearing a CBP Border Patrol Agent uniform and badge—you will become a member of the elite thin green line that protects your nation.

As CBP’s mission statement proudly proclaims: “We are the guardians of our nation’s borders. We are America’s frontline.”

And we are! And you will be.

I am proud of each one of you for the commitment you have made.

I wish you all the best as you go through your basic training here at Artesia.

God bless you—and may God watch over you as you train for your incredibly important mission.

* * * * *

And now, before I ask that the Border Patrol pennant be posted, let me say that this pennant was lowered from the Border Patrol training facility in Charleston and flown to Artesia for today’s ceremony.

This pennant will later be raised and flown over the Border Patrol Academy to symbolize the continuity of the Border Patrol tradition here at Artesia.

This concludes our ceremony. Thank you all for sharing this special day with us.

Commissioner Bonner reserves the right to edit his written remarks during his oral presentation and to speak extemporaneously. Thus, his actual remarks, as given, may vary slightly from the written text.