Sponsors (16)
The bill increases transparency and provides more timely intelligence that can improve targeting of border resources and public awareness, but it raises substantial privacy and stigmatization risks, could enable adversaries to adapt, and imposes additional costs and enforcement risks for migrants and communities.
Law enforcement, DHS, and congressional oversight bodies get more timely, detailed intelligence on transnational criminal and terrorist group attempts and repeat border crossers, enabling better targeting of personnel and resources to high-risk routes.
The public gains regular monthly CBP statistics (encounters, nationalities, gang/TCO links, drug seizures, TSD encounter counts), increasing transparency and enabling oversight by taxpayers and border communities.
Public reporting of drug seizures and gang/TCO apprehensions helps local authorities and communities assess safety risks and allocate public-safety resources.
Communities near the border and migrants could face increased enforcement actions if reports are used to prioritize and escalate enforcement, raising risks to migrants and local residents.
Publishing nationality breakdowns and TSD-related encounter counts risks stigmatizing immigrant groups and exposing sensitive information that harms individuals' privacy and due-process protections.
Monthly and annual reporting increases administrative workload and verification/publication costs for CBP and DHS, diverting staff time from frontline operations and imposing expenses on taxpayers.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Requires CBP to publish monthly public operational statistics about encounters and TSD/TCO contacts and requires DHS to deliver an initial and annual assessment on FTO/TCO movement attempts into the U.S.
Official title: To publicize U.S. Customs and Border Protection operational statistics and report on foreign terrorist organizations.
Introduced February 6, 2025 by Morgan Luttrell · Last progress February 6, 2025
Requires U.S. Customs and Border Protection to publish detailed monthly operational statistics on encounters, apprehensions, seizures, and contacts with individuals tied to terrorist or transnational criminal organizations, beginning with the second full month after enactment. Requires the Department of Homeland Security to deliver to Congress an initial assessment within 90 days and an annual assessment thereafter about foreign terrorist organizations and transnational criminal organizations trying to move members or affiliates into the United States via southern, northern, or maritime routes. The reporting must include counts and nationalities for total and unique encounters, gang-affiliated apprehensions, drug seizures, contacts with individuals on the Terrorist Screening Database, arrests of criminal aliens, known got-aways, deceased encounters, TCO-affiliated encounters, and separate breakdowns for repeat attempts and whether such individuals were released or removed. The DHS assessment must identify attempts by designated foreign terrorist organizations and TCOs to move people into the U.S. and be submitted to specified congressional homeland security committees.