Jaime Zapata Border Enforcement Security Task Force Act

(This measure has not been amended since it was passed by the Senate on September 22, 2012. The summary of that version is repeated here.)

Jaime Zapata Border Enforcement Security Task Force Act - Amends the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to establish within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) the Border Enforcement Security Task Force (BEST), which shall 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.

Authorizes the Secretary of Homeland Security to establish BEST units in jurisdictions in which such units can contribute to BEST missions, after considering: (1) whether the area in which the unit would be established is significantly impacted by cross-border threats; (2) the availability of federal, state, local, tribal, and foreign law enforcement resources to participate in the unit; (3) the extent to which border security threats are having a significant harmful impact in the area and in other U.S. jurisdictions; and (4) whether an Integrated Border Enforcement Team already exists in the area. Directs the Secretary, in determining whether to establish or expand a BEST unit in a given jurisdiction, to ensure that the unit under consideration does not duplicate the efforts of other existing interagency task forces or centers within that jurisdiction.

Authorizes the Secretary, after determining the jurisdictions in which to establish BEST units and in order to provide federal assistance to such jurisdictions, to: (1) direct the assignment of federal personnel to BEST; and (2) take other actions to assist federal, state, local, and tribal entities to participate in BEST, including providing financial assistance for operational, administrative, and technological costs associated with such participation.

Directs the Secretary to report annually on the effectiveness of the program in enhancing border security and reducing the drug trafficking, arms smuggling, illegal alien trafficking and smuggling, violence, and kidnapping along and across U.S. borders.

Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov