Canada-United States Integrated Border Enforcement Teams

Integrated Border Enforcement Teams (IBETs) are a Canada/U.S. initiative set out in the Smart Border Accord. These Teams combine the intelligence and law enforcement expertise of various agencies and use a coordinated approach to identify and stop the high-risk movement of people and goods between the ports of entry on the Canada - United States border. Both countries share a common border and common objectives: to ensure that the border is open for business, but closed to crime.

• Mission
• The CBSA's Role
• The CBSA's Commitment
• Success Stories

The core agencies directly involved in IBETs are:

• Canada Border Services Agency
• Royal Canadian Mounted Police
• U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) (English only)
• U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) (English only)
• U.S. Coast Guard (English only)

Mission

IBETs will enhance border integrity and security at our shared border by identifying, investigating, and interdicting persons and organizations that pose a threat to national security or are engaged in other organized criminal activity.

The Canada Border Services Agency's Role

The CBSA and RCMP jointly operate IBETs. They share the responsibility for collecting critical information to develop criminal intelligence to assist in investigations relating to national security or criminality such as organized crime and human smuggling.

The CBSA's Commitment

The Canada Border Services Agency's commitment to the IBETs initiative is to:

• provide expert immigration and customs strategic and tactical intelligence support;
• liaise with the port-of-entry operations;
• participate in developing specialized training, joint risk assessments and intelligence sharing.

The immigration contribution includes specialized support in the areas of national security, organized crime, war crimes, irregular migration, anti-fraud and serious criminality, using its intelligence network with offices in National Headquarters, five domestic regions and its overseas migration integrity component.

The customs contribution includes expert delivery of strategic and tactical intelligence targeting suspected businesses and individuals involved in national security, transnational organized crime and other illicit border-related criminal activity, through specialized national and international customs intelligence networks.

Success Stories

2006 Joint Cross-Border Operations (RCMP)
A sampling of joint cross-border operations involving IBETs.