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U.S. Department of Homeland Security
2004 Year End Review



The following is a snapshot of 2004 accomplishments and statistics for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security:

Customs and Border Protection (CBP):

  • 428 million passengers and pedestrians, including 262 million aliens, were processed at land, air, and sea ports of entry. Of that number over 643,000 aliens were deemed inadmissible under U.S. law.
  • 1,158,800 illegal aliens were arrested by Border Patrol agents between our official ports of entry.
  • The Container Security Initiative (CSI) was expanded to include 21 countries. CSI is now operational in 33 foreign ports in Europe, Asia, and Africa. The port of Dubai recently became the first Middle Eastern port to participate in CSI.
  • Three months ahead of schedule, the Integrated Automated Fingerprint System (IAFIS) is now operational at all Border Patrol stations. From September through November, over 23,000 individuals with criminal records have been identified and arrested. 84 of those detained were murder suspects and 151 were wanted for sexual assault.
  • The Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terror (C-TPAT) has become the largest government/private partnership to arise from September 11th. Just over 8,000 private sector members have applied to participate in C-TPAT.
  • CBP officers and agents made 56,321 seizures of illegal drugs, with a total weight of 2,199,619 pounds. Of this number, CBP officers at official ports of entry made 47,744 seizures nationwide, weighing 844,222 pounds and worth an estimated $1 billion. CBP Border Patrol agents made 8,577 seizures, totaling 1,355,397 pounds of illegal drugs worth an estimated $1.62 billion between the official ports of entry.
  • Together with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), CBP seized more than $138 million worth of counterfeit goods in FY 2004, up from $94 million worth of counterfeit goods in FY 2003.

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA):

  • FEMA provided $2.25 billion in aid for individuals and families affected by disasters. The outlay included $1.29 billion in housing assistance, $918 million for other needs assistance, such as medical expenses and personal property losses, and $30.98 million in unemployment benefits.
  • More than 1.1 million hurricane victims have registered for assistance since mid-August, the highest ever. $1.43 billion has been spent for individual assistance needs and $1.15 billion in public assistance for the state and local governments.
  • 15,560 federal workers were engaged in response and recovery operations for the declared disasters of 2004, including more than 11,000 FEMA personnel and 1,900 disaster medical specialists. As part of the massive response effort in Florida and other hard hit states this past fall, 163 million pounds of ice, 10.8 million gallons of water, 14 million meals-ready-to-eat and 151,000 rolls of plastic roofing material were delivered to help meet immediate emergency needs.

Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC):

  • Provided basic and advance law enforcement training to more than 44,750 students, representing 81 federal agencies, as well as state, local and international law enforcement organizations.
  • Aggressively pursued new initiatives in support of homeland security; developing counter-terrorism training programs and facilities; enhancing intelligence awareness and analysis training offerings; and incorporating sophisticated technologies, such as computer generated or controlled simulations, into training.

Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE):

ICE was the second-largest federal contributor to the nation’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTFs) with more than 300 ICE agents assigned to JTTFs nationwide.

  • More than 2,500 criminal investigations were conducted involving the illegal export of U.S. arms and strategic technology, including Weapons of Mass Destruction.
  • ICE made 1,368 arrests and brought 895 indictments for money laundering and other financial crimes, exceeding arrests and indictments of the prior fiscal year. ICE seized more than $202 million worth of currency, bank accounts, properties and vehicles as a result of financial investigations.
  • More than 4,600 child sex predators were apprehended nationwide and over 2,100 child sex predators were deported. The first child sex tourism arrests were made under the Protect Act.
  • A 112 percent increase over the prior year for fugitive apprehensions resulted in more than 7,200 arrests. More than 150,000 aliens were removed in FY 2004, 53 percent of who were criminals. This is an all-time record.
  • Federal Protective Officers were responsible for 4,426 arrests – a 58 percent increase over the previous fiscal year. They responded to 430 bomb threats and 877 calls about suspicious packages and other items at federal facilities.

Transportation Security Administration (TSA):

Passenger screening has been effective in 2004 by keeping 6,501,193 prohibited items from coming on board aircrafts. The following is a partial list of prohibited items found during screening in 2004:
** 1,895,915 Knives
** 3,285,994 Other Cutting Instruments
** 294,694 Clubs
** 20,509 Box Cutters
** 598 Firearms
** 693,548 Incendiaries
  • Over 3,000 arrests were made at security checkpoints.
  • Approximately 650 million passengers traveled by air in 2004. 1.8 million Passengers traveled per day and experienced an average screening peak wait time under 12 minutes and an average wait time of 3 minutes in 2004.
  • Approximately 600 million checked bags were screened using advanced explosive technologies in 2004.

United States Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS):

  • 500,000 new United States citizens were naturalized.
  • 9,000 active duty military personnel were naturalized through expedited processing.
    35 million background checks of persons petitioning for immigration benefits were conducted.
  • More than 20,000 children from around the world were adopted by U.S. families due to petitions processed by USCIS.
  • Almost 50 million visitors sought information about immigration benefits and procedures from the USCIS web-site.

United States Coast Guard (USCG):

  • 255,233 pounds of cocaine were seized breaking the record set in 1997.
  • 10,348 migrants were interdicted.
  • 5,498 lives were saved and 30,895 search-and-rescue cases were conducted.
    The Maritime Transportation Security Act (MTSA) was implemented. It is the largest maritime regulatory project in our nation’s history, which entailed the establishment of 43 Area Maritime Security Committees as well as the creation of 43 Area Maritime Security Plans, almost 9,200 Vessel Security Plans, and over 3,100 Facility Security Plans.

United States Secret Service (USSS):

  • 30 individuals involved in global cyber organized crime, domestically and internationally, were arrested through Operation Firewall. Industry experts estimate that $1 billion in total fraud loss was prevented.
  • Completed 13,395 criminal investigations and arrested 5,566 individuals. Of these, 1,956 individuals were arrested for manufacturing or possessing counterfeit U.S. currency, which resulted in the seizure of 499 counterfeit production plants and $46.5 million in counterfeit currency.
  • The Secret Service Electronic Crimes Task Force Initiative was expanded to include 15 task forces that work with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies across the country, prosecutors and experts from the private sector and academia.

US-VISIT:

In January 2004, US-VISIT (was successfully implemented at all 115 U.S. international airports and 14 seaports. Since that time, more than 370 people with records of criminal or immigration violations have been prevents from entering the U.S. by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Officers.

On September 30, Visa Waiver Program (VWP) travelers were included in US-VISIT and the program has now processed more than 14 million travelers while not increasing wait times and earning praise for its privacy efforts.

US-VISIT is now operational at the nation’s 50 busiest land border crossings where significant time savings are already occurring.