OBP005553

From: (b) (6)

To: (b) (6)
Cc: (b) (6) Giddens, Gregory; Adams, Rowdy D; (b) (6)
Subject: RE: Townhall Definitions
Date: Tuesday, February 26, 2008 3:17:42 PM

Thanks (b) What I gave to (b) (6) was basically the 5 taken out the 18 town halls was because
as a group
(6) we determined those 5 to be more of “outreach to the public” because we didn’t feel the
“advertising” to the public met the town hall definition.

(b)
(6)

From: (b) (6)

Sent: Tuesday, February 26, 2008 2:38 PM
To: (b) (6)
Cc: (b) (6) Giddens, Gregory; Adams, Rowdy D; (b) (6)
Subject: RE: Townhall Definitions
Importance: High

Good afternoon (b)

(6)
If this is being communicated to the Hill, I would prefer to have (b) and (b) (6) input, as they were
involved in the discussions. (6)

This is a general first cut, and would need to be significantly polished:

The use of fencing as a means to secure areas along the border is not a new approach. The
Border Patrol, which has long been recognized as the experts on border security, has received
support for erecting and employing fence as an effective border security measure for over two
decades.

As part of our standard decision-making process, the Border Patrol has always consulted with
the community. However, fence construction has always been an operational issue, and we
have never previously needed to define, classify, and document our consultation efforts.

Because we had not initially documented our outreach and had not defined what a town hall
was, the term was used inconsistently. In some cases, Sectors generally referred to meetings
with the public as a town hall.

When tasked to provide documentation on our outreach, SBI, OCA, OPA, OPP, OBP, and CBP
State and Local coordinated to develop the following definitions and reclassify our outreach.

A “town hall” is defined as a meeting to which the public is invited to attend and
participate in a dialogue.

An “outreach to public group” is defined as a community briefing to members of the

public, but that was not advertised.

“Outreach to officials” is defined as a meeting with representatives of the community at

different levels of Government, such as mayors, city managers, law enforcement,
Congress, etc.

While we did not define a “public open house,” this term has been used to describe
OBP005554

meetings held specifically to obtain input on a draft environmental document, and is

advertised to the potentially affected community.

The primary criteria that caused us to change a classification was whether the meeting was
advertised to the general public to attend.

By consistently applying the criteria to our outreach events, we reclassified a number of

meetings. In some cases, a meeting with the public was reclassified to be a town hall; in some
cases a town hall was reclassified into a different category.

For example we had meetings at the invitation of public groups, but that were not
advertised to the general public. Even though some of these meetings involved a range
of members of the community and a dialogue on tactical infrastructure, we did not
classify them as town halls because the general public was not invited.

(b) (6) (b) (6) and (b) please provide any questions or suggestions on the above text.
(6)
(b) (6)
Secure Border Initiative
U.S. Customs and Border Protection
(b) (6)
For more information about the Secure Border Initiative, visit www.cbp.gov/sbi or contact us at SBI_info@dhs.gov.

From: (b) (6)

Sent: Tuesday, February 26, 2008 11:59 AM
To: (b) (6)
Cc: (b) (6) Giddens, Gregory; Adams, Rowdy D
Subject: Re: Townhall Definitions

(b)
Thanks. That is good information but
(6)
I think Congressman Reyes is looking for why did we go from 18 to 13 townhalls. What changed in what we
called a townhall before to our current definition that we decided we have had 13 townhalls.
(b)
(6)
----- Original Message -----
From: (b) (6)
To: (b) (6)
Cc: (b) (6) GIDDENS, GREGORY
<GREGORY.Giddens@dhs.gov>; ADAMS, ROWDY D <ROWDY.Adams@dhs.gov>
Sent: Tue Feb 26 11:21:24 2008
Subject: RE: Townhall Definitions

Good afternoon (b)

(6)

There has not been a change in our definition of a town hall, as we did not previously have one.

The Border Patrol has built fence for decades, and has always consulted with the community. However, fence
construction has always been an operational issue as opposed to the political issue it has become. As such, we
didn’t anticipate the need to define, classify, and document our consultation efforts.
OBP005555

When the Office of Public Affairs tasked SBI to provide documentation on our outreach, we coordinated with OBP
to develop the following definitions and reclassify our outreach.

A “town hall” is defined as a meeting at which the public was invited to attend and participate in a dialogue.

An “outreach to public group” is defined as a community briefing to members of the public, but that was not
advertised.

“Outreach to officials” is defined as a meeting with representatives of the community at different levels of
Government, such as mayors, city managers, law enforcement, Congress, etc.

Please let me know if you have any additional questions on this topic.

(b) (6)

Secure Border Initiative

U.S. Customs and Border Protection

(b) (6)

For more information about the Secure Border Initiative, visit www.cbp.gov/sbi <http://www.cbp.gov/sbi> or
contact us at SBI_info@dhs.gov <mailto:SBI_info@dhs.gov> .

________________________________

From: (b) (6)

Sent: Tuesday, February 26, 2008 10:19 AM
To: (b) (6)
Cc: (b) (6)
Subject: Townhall Definitions

(b)
(6)
Jeff is asking for the before and after definitions of town hall. This is a congressional getback. Basically what we
thought it was before and then what we ended up as with as a definition. Thanks.

(b)
(6)

(b) (6)

Assistant Chief

Headquarters U.S. Border Patrol

Office: (b) (6)

OBP005556

Cell: (b) (6)