PRESIDENT'S IMMIGRATION BUDGET EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Prepared by the Office of Public Affairs • Immigration & Naturalization Service • (202) 514- 2648

Strengthening the Nation's Immigration System
The Fiscal Year 2001 budget request for the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) totals $4.8 billion, an 11-percent increase over FY 2000. With this budget, the Administration will have increased INS funding by 219 percent since FY 1993. The FY 2001 budget includes $523.2 million in new initiatives. The budget will add a total of 1,305 new positions, allowing INS to grow to 33,122 positions by the end of FY 2001.

The FY 2001 budget supports the immigration goals and strategies that the Administration and the agency have pursued effectively over the past several years.

These include improving customer service, facilitating legal immigration while deterring illegal immigration, and removing criminal and other illegal aliens from the United States.

The budget allows INS to build on its successful efforts to bring integrity and safety to the borders and improve the quality of life in border communities. It also enhances the agency's ability to remove those who are living and working in the country illegally.

In addition to strengthening enforcement, the FY 2001 budget intensifies INS' focus on service. For the first time, the budget calls for a fund to address ongoing infrastructure needs that are not currently covered by application fees. This Capital Investment Account would be used solely to fund immigration services and benefits.

Key initiatives in the FY 2001 budget include:

• Creating an Immigration Services Capital Investment Account (ISCIA) to be used to fund infrastructure improvements, systems upgrades, and to address immigration benefit backlogs. This marks the first time INS would have a dedicated fund, separate from the Examinations Fee Account (which is funded solely through application fees) that draws on other funding sources to pay for key service-related initiatives. INS is anticipating $127.3 million in the ISCIA, funded from $34.8 million in direct appropriations and the balance from portions of two proposed new fees, a Premium Service Fee for businesses and fees from the re-authorization of a permanent 245(i) adjustment-of-status program.

• Proposing a voluntary Premium Service Fee of $1,000 for business-related applications, which will provide businesses with guaranteed processing within 15 days. Fees received above the cost of the guaranteed processing time for the applications and deterring benefit fraud will be deposited in the ISCIA to support service-related infrastructure improvements, benefiting all INS customers.

• Strengthening the multi-year border enforcement effort by providing a $52 million increase to the Border Patrol. This will fund 430 additional Border Patrol Agents, increasing staff to more than double the FY 1993 level.