S.Amdt. 1591

SA 1591. Mr. CARPER submitted an amendment intended to be proposed to
amendment SA 1183 submitted by Mr. Leahy (for himself and Mr. Hatch) to
the bill S. 744, to provide for comprehensive immigration reform and
for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

After section 1123, insert the following:

SEC. 1124. BETTER ENFORCEMENT THROUGH TRANSPARENCY AND
ENHANCED REPORTING ON THE BORDER ACT.

(a) Short Title.--This section may be cited as the ``Better
Enforcement Through Transparency and Enhanced Reporting on
the Border Act'' or the ``BETTER Border Act''.
(b) Office of Homeland Security Statistics.--
(1) Establishment.--There is established within the
Department an Office of Homeland Security Statistics
(referred to in this section as the ``Office''), which shall
be headed by a Director.
(2) Transfer of functions.--
(A) Abolishment of office of immigration statistics.--The
Office of Immigration Statistics of the Department is
abolished.
(B) Transfer of functions.--All functions and
responsibilities of the Office of Immigration Statistics as
of the day before the date of the enactment of this Act,
including all of the personnel, assets, components,
authorities, programs, and liabilities of the Office of
Immigration Statistics, are transferred to the Office of
Homeland Security Statistics.
(3) Duties.--The Director of the Office shall--
(A) collect information from agencies of the Department,
including internal databases used to--
(i) undertake border inspections;
(ii) identify visa overstays;
(iii) undertake immigration enforcement actions; and
(iv) grant immigration benefits;
(B) produce the annual report required to be submitted to
Congress under subsection (c); and
(C) collect the information described in section 103(d) of
the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1103(d)) and
disseminate such information to Congress and to the public;
(D) produce any other reports and conduct any other work
that the Office of Immigration Statistics was required to
produce or conduct before the date of the enactment of this
Act; and
(E) produce such other reports or conduct such other work
as the Secretary determines to be necessary.
(4) Intradepartmental data sharing.--Agencies and offices
of the Department shall share any data that is required to
comply with this section.
(5) Consultation.--In carrying out this subsection, the
Director of the Office shall consult with the Ombudsman for
Immigration Related Concerns to the greatest extent
practicable.
(6) Placement.--Not later than 180 days after the date of
the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall notify
Congress where the Office has been established within the
Department.
(7) Conforming amendment.--Section 103(d) (8 U.S.C.
1103(d)) is amended by striking ``Commissioner'' and
inserting ``Director of the Office of Homeland Security
Statistics''.
(c) Report on Performance Metrics.--
(1) In general.--In addition to any reports required to be
produced by the Office of Immigration Statistics before the
date of enactment of this Act, the Director, on an annual
basis, shall submit to Congress a report on performance
metrics that will enable--
(A) the Department to develop an understanding of--
(i) the security of the border;
(ii) efforts to enforce immigration laws within the United
States; and
(iii) the overall working of the immigration system; and
(B) policy makers, including Congress--
(i) to make more effective investments in order to secure
the border;
(ii) to enforce the immigration laws of the United States;
and
(iii) to ensure that the Federal immigration system is
working efficiently at every level.
(2) Contents.--The report required under paragraph (1)
shall contain outcome performance measures, for the year
covered by the report, including--
(A) for the areas between ports of entry--
(i) the estimated number of attempted illegal entries, the
estimated number of successful entries, and the number of
apprehensions, categorized by sector;
(ii) the number of individuals that attempted to cross the
border and information concerning how many times individuals
attempted to cross, categorized by sector;
(iii) the number of individuals returned to Mexico
voluntarily, criminally prosecuted, and receiving any other
form of sanctions, categorized by sector; and
(iv) the recidivism rates for all classes of individuals
apprehended, including individuals returned to Mexico
voluntarily, criminally prosecuted, and receiving any other
form of sanctions, categorized by sector;
(B) for ports of entry--
(i) the estimated number of attempted illegal entries, the
number of apprehensions, and the estimated number of
successful entries, categorized by field office; and
(ii) information compiled based on random samples of
secondary inspections, including estimates of the
effectiveness of inspectors in identifying civil and criminal
immigration and customs violations, categorized by field
office; and
(iii) enforcement outcomes for individuals denied
admission, including the number of--

(I) individuals allowed to withdraw their application for
admission or voluntarily return to their country of origin;
(II) individuals referred for criminal prosecution; and
(III) individuals receiving any other form of
administrative sanction;

(C) for visa overstays--
(i) the number of people that overstay the terms of their
admission into the United States, categorized by--

(I) nationality;
(II) type of visa or entry; and
(III) length of time an individual overstayed, including--

(aa) the number of individuals who overstayed less than 180
days;
(bb) the number of individuals who overstayed less than 1
year; and
(cc) the number of individuals who overstayed for 1 year or
longer; and
(ii) estimates of the total number of unauthorized aliens
in the United States that entered legally and overstayed the
terms of their admission;
(D) for interior enforcement--
(i) the number of arrests made by U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement for civil violations of immigration laws
and the number of arrests made for criminal violations,
categorized by Special Agent in Charge field office;
(ii) the legal basis for the arrests pursuant to criminal
statutes described in clause (i);
(iii) the ultimate disposition of the arrests described in
clause (i);
(iv) the overall number of removals and the number of
removals, by nationality;
(v) the overall average length of detention and the length
of detention, by nationality; and
(vi) the number of referrals from U.S. Citizenship and
Immigration Services to Immigration and Customs Enforcement,
and the ultimate outcome of these referrals, including how
many resulted in removal proceedings;
(E) for immigration benefits--
(i) the number of applications processed, rejected, and
accepted each year for all categories of immigration
benefits, categorized by visa type;
(ii) the mean and median processing times for all
categories of immigration benefits, categorized by visa type;
and
(iii) data relating to fraud uncovered in applications for
all categories of immigration benefits, categorized by visa
type; and
(F) for the Employment Verification System established
under section 274A of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8
U.S.C. 1324a)--
(i) the total number of tentative nonconfirmations (further
action notices);
(ii) the number of tentative nonconfirmations issued to
workers who were subsequently found to be authorized for
employment in the United States;
(iii) the total number of final nonconfirmations;
(iv) the number of final nonconfirmations issued to workers
who were subsequently found to be authorized for employment
in the United States;
(v) the total number of confirmations; and
(vi) the estimated number of confirmations issued to
unauthorized workers.
(d) Early Warning System.--Using the data collected by the
Office under this section, the Secretary shall establish an
early warning system to estimate future illegal immigration,
which shall monitor the outcome performance measures
described in subsection (c)(2), along with political,
economic, demographic, law enforcement, and other trends that
may affect such outcomes.
(e) Systematic Modeling of Illegal Immigration Trends.--The
Secretary shall provide for the systematic modeling of
illegal immigration trends to develop forecast models of
illegal immigration flows and estimates for the undocumented
population residing within the United States.
(f) External Review of Homeland Security Data.--
(1) In general.--The Secretary, in consultation with the
National Academy of Sciences, shall make raw data collected
by the Department, including individual-level data subject to
the requirements in paragraph (3), on border security,
immigration

[[Page S5052]]

enforcement, and immigration benefits available for research
on immigration trends, to--
(A) appropriate academic institutions and centers of
excellence;
(B) the Congressional Research Service; and
(C) the Government Accountability Office.
(2) Public release of data.--The Secretary shall ensure
that data of the Department on border security, immigration
enforcement, and immigration benefits is released to the
public to the maximum degree permissible under Federal law to
increase the confidence of the public in the credibility and
objectivity of measurements related to the management and
outcomes of immigration and border control processes.
(3) Requirements.--In carrying out this subsection, the
Secretary, in consultation with the National Academy of
Sciences--
(A) shall ensure that the data described in paragraphs (1)
and (2) is anonymized to safeguard individual privacy;
(B) may mask location data below the sector, district field
office, or special agent in charge office level to protect
national security; and
(C) shall not be required to provided classified
information to individuals other than to those individuals
who have appropriate security clearances.
(g) Availability of Funds.--The Secretary may use such sums
as may be necessary from the Comprehensive Immigration Reform
Trust Fund established under section 6(a)(1)--
(1) to establish the Office; and
(2) to produce reports related to securing the border and
enforcing the immigration laws of the United States.
______