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Title 6, Domestic SecurityRelease 119-110

§240 Border Enforcement Security Task Force

Title 6 › CHAPTER 1 — HOMELAND SECURITY ORGANIZATION › SUBCHAPTER IV — BORDER, MARITIME, AND TRANSPORTATION SECURITY › Part C — Miscellaneous Provisions › § 240

Last updated Sep 23, 2026|Official source

Summary

Creates a program called the Border Enforcement Security Task Force (BEST) inside the Department. BEST forms local units made up of people from federal agencies (such as ICE, CBP, and the Coast Guard), other Department and federal staff, and state, local, tribal, and foreign law enforcement. These units must work together to fight cross‑border threats and share homeland security information. Before starting a unit, the Secretary must check if the area has serious cross‑border problems, whether partners are available to join, how badly the threats hurt the area or other places, and whether an Integrated Border Enforcement Team already exists there. The Secretary must avoid duplicating other task forces. The Secretary can assign federal staff to BEST with their agency’s OK and can give money to help agencies join, including for operations, admin, pay, and technology. Within 180 days after BEST starts, and then once a year for the next 5 years, the Secretary must report to Congress on how well BEST reduced drug trafficking, arms smuggling, people smuggling and illegal entry, violence, and kidnapping, using crime data like violent deaths, violent incidents, and drug arrests.

Full Legal Text

Title 6, §240

Domestic Security, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Establishment
There is established within the Department a program to be known as the Border Enforcement Security Task Force (referred to in this section as “BEST”).
(b)Purpose
The purpose of BEST is to establish units to enhance border security by addressing and reducing border security threats and violence by—
(1)facilitating collaboration among Federal, State, local, tribal, and foreign law enforcement agencies to execute coordinated activities in furtherance of border security, and homeland security; and
(2)enhancing information-sharing, including the dissemination of homeland security information among such agencies.
(c)Composition and establishment of units
(1)Composition
BEST units may be comprised of personnel from—
(A)U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement;
(B)U.S. Customs and Border Protection;
(C)the United States Coast Guard;
(D)other Department personnel, as appropriate
(E)other Federal agencies, as appropriate;
(F)appropriate State law enforcement agencies;
(G)foreign law enforcement agencies, as appropriate;
(H)local law enforcement agencies from affected border cities and communities; and
(I)appropriate tribal law enforcement agencies.
(2)Establishment of units
The Secretary is authorized to establish BEST units in jurisdictions in which such units can contribute to BEST missions, as appropriate. Before establishing a BEST unit, the Secretary shall consider—
(A)whether the area in which the BEST unit would be established is significantly impacted by cross-border threats;
(B)the availability of Federal, State, local, tribal, and foreign law enforcement resources to participate in the BEST unit;
(C)the extent to which border security threats are having a significant harmful impact in the jurisdiction in which the BEST unit is to be established, and other jurisdictions in the country; and
(D)whether or not an Integrated Border Enforcement Team already exists in the area in which the BEST unit would be established.
(3)Duplication of efforts
In determining whether to establish a new BEST unit or to expand an existing BEST unit in a given jurisdiction, the Secretary shall ensure that the BEST unit under consideration does not duplicate the efforts of other existing interagency task forces or centers within that jurisdiction.
(d)Operation
After determining the jurisdictions in which to establish BEST units under subsection (c)(2), and in order to provide Federal assistance to such jurisdictions, the Secretary may—
(1)direct the assignment of Federal personnel to BEST, subject to the approval of the head of the department or agency that employs such personnel; and
(2)take other actions to assist Federal, State, local, and tribal entities to participate in BEST, including providing financial assistance, as appropriate, for operational, administrative, salary reimbursement, and technological costs associated with the participation of Federal, State, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies in BEST.
(e)Report
Not later than 180 days after the date on which BEST is established under this section, and annually thereafter for the following 5 years, the Secretary shall submit a report to Congress that describes the effectiveness of BEST in enhancing border security and reducing the drug trafficking, arms smuggling, illegal alien trafficking and smuggling, violence, and kidnapping along and across the international borders of the United States, as measured by crime statistics, including violent deaths, incidents of violence, and drug-related arrests.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

2022—Subsec. (d)(2). Pub. L. 117–159 inserted “salary reimbursement,” after “administrative,”.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Rule of

Construction

Nothing in amendment made by Pub. L. 117–159 to be construed to allow the establishment of a Federal system of registration of firearms, firearms owners, or firearms transactions or dispositions, see section 12004(k) of Pub. L. 117–159, set out as a note under section 922 of Title 18, Crimes and Criminal Procedure. Findings and Declaration of Purposes Pub. L. 112–205, § 2, Dec. 7, 2012, 126 Stat. 1487, provided that: “Congress finds the following: “(1) The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) overriding mission is to lead a unified national effort to protect the United States. United States Immigration and Customs

Enforcement

(ICE) is the largest investigative agency within DHS and is charged with enforcing a wide array of laws, including laws related to securing the border and combating criminal smuggling. “(2) Mexico’s northern border with the United States has experienced a dramatic surge in border crime and violence in recent years due to intense competition between Mexican drug cartels and criminal smuggling organizations that employ predatory tactics to realize their profits. “(3) Law

Enforcement

agencies at the United States northern border also face challenges from transnational smuggling organizations. “(4) In response, DHS has partnered with Federal, State, local, tribal, and foreign law

Enforcement

counterparts to create the Border

Enforcement

Security Task Force (BEST) initiative as a comprehensive approach to addressing border security threats. These multi-agency teams are designed to increase information-sharing and collaboration among the participating law

Enforcement

agencies. “(5) BEST teams incorporate personnel from ICE, United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the Drug

Enforcement

Administration (DEA), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATFE), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the United States Coast Guard (USCG), and the U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO), along with other key Federal, State and local law

Enforcement

agencies. “(6) Foreign law

Enforcement

agencies participating in BEST include Mexico’s Secretaria de Seguridad Publica (SSP), the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).”

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

6 U.S.C. § 240

Title 6, Domestic Security

Last Updated

Sep 23, 2026

Release point: 119-110