Northrop Grumman selects DSA for ICE contract

Controlling the flow of immigrants to the United States is big business getting bigger. Last week the respected Pew Hispanic Center reported that the number of illegal immigrants in the United States had crossed the twelve million mark, and restlessness among legislators has led Senate majority leader Bill Frist (R-Tennessee) to put forward his own immigration control bill. On the business side, Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) has selected Trevose, Pennsylvania-based DSA, a provider of global information technology support, as a subcontractor to participate in a contract award from DHS Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office of Detention and Removal (ICE DRO). DSA will supply travel coordinators and travel authorizers to provide support services for DRO’s Centralized Ticketing (CENTIX) program.

Northrop Grumman’s Mission Systems sector was awarded the ICE DRO’s Centralized Ticketing Support Services $5.9 million, 60-month contract last year. Northrop is an old hand in these matters, but this is DSA’s first DHS support mission. DSA’s travel authorizers will screen requests, coordinate commercial travel arrangements, request and coordinate country clearances through embassies, and coordinate approved travel authorizations through DRO field offices and Customs and Immigration authorities. The Centralized Ticketing Program is being managed by DSA’s Intelligence Community and Homeland Security Business Unit located in Fairfax, VA.

-read more in this news release; see Pew’s report at organization Web site; see discussion of Senator Frist’s ideas on immigration in this Rachel Swarns New York Times report