The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced an agreement today with the European Union Directorate General for Energy and Transport on air cargo screening standards for passenger carrying aircraft. The agreement was reached in advance of a February 2009 deadline to screen 50 percent of air cargo on passenger carrying aircraft.

Charles Allen spoke in Colorado to address at the sixth annual Symposium of the National Homeland Defense Foundation. He shared the progress of DHS' efforts to secure the Homeland and to describe the many ways DHS works in collaboration with partners at home and abroad.

Charles Allen gave the keynote at the GEOINT Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, on October 28, 2008, discussing the critical role that geospatial intelligence plays in Departmental operations every day.

Secretary Chertoff spoke at a roundtable of reporters from select Visa Waiver Program countries in Washington, D.C., on October 23, 2008.

Secretary Chertoff highlighted the comprehensive efforts to secure the border, enforce national immigration laws, improve temporary worker programs, and legal migration in his fourth State of Immigration Address. The Secretary described progress in several areas including the 370 miles of border fence, the success of interior enforcement, a record upswing in legal migration, and the Department's No-Match Supplemental Final Rule.

Each day at America's ports of entry U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers inspect more than 1.1 million travelers, including 340,000 vehicles and over 85,000 shipments of goods approved for entry; process more than 70,000 truck, rail and sea containers; collect more than $88 million in fees, duties, and tariffs; seize more than 5,500 pounds in illegal narcotics; and intercept more than 4,400 agricultural items and pests at ports of entry.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a Supplemental Final Rule that provides additional background and analysis for the department’s No-Match Rule. The DHS regulation, which was originally proposed in June 2006 and issued in August 2007 as a Final Rule, clarifies what steps responsible employers can take to resolve discrepancies identified in “no-match” letters issued by the Social Security Administration (SSA). It also provides guidance to help businesses comply with legal requirements intended to reduce the illegal employment of unauthorized workers.