Support More Assets, Resources, and Technology on the Border Act of 2017 or the SMART Act of 2017
This bill directs the Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) to take actions to achieve and maintain operational control of the U.S.-Mexico border (defined as a condition in which all illegal border crossers are apprehended and narcotics and other contraband are seized); and (2) report to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on such actions, achievement, and maintenance.
The GAO shall, within 90 days after such report is submitted: (1) consult with state and local officials along such border regarding such operational control, and (2) report on such operational control to specified congressional committees. The House of Representatives and the Senate must vote on a joint resolution on the question of whether such report should be disapproved within 90 days of receiving it or such joint resolution shall be deemed passed. The GAO shall submit an annual report on such operational control.
The Department of Defense (DOD) shall: (1) deploy up to an additional 10,000 members of the National Guard along the U.S.-Mexico border as requested by border states, and (2) provide funds to the governor of a state who submits a state border control activities plan that is approved by DOD and that specifies how personnel of the National Guard of such state are to be used in border control activities. National Guard personnel may be ordered to carry out border control activities.
The bill authorizes: (1) DHS to deploy smart border technologies if necessary to achieve and maintain such operational control; and (2) DOD to transfer specified eligible equipment returned from DOD operations to federal, state, and local agencies, with preference to agencies that will use such equipment primarily to strengthen border security.
The bill requires DHS: (1) if such a joint resolution of disapproval on operational control passes, to appoint an additional 1,500 Border Patrol agents; (2) make grants to sheriffs' departments along the border in Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California to hire additional deputies; and (3) establish the biometric entry and exit data system required under the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004.
DHS is authorized to make competitive grants for public-private partnerships that finance equipment and infrastructure to improve the public safety of residents of U.S. rural areas near the border by enhancing access to mobile communications for such persons.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection shall ensure that an individual who is apprehended unlawfully crossing, or attempting to unlawfully cross, the border into the United States is counted only once for purposes of counting border apprehensions.