• A Jordanian solution for SBInet replacement?

    After spending nearly $1 billion dollars and five years on the now defunct virtual border fence project known as SBInet, DHS is still actively seeking to build a high tech virtual border along the southern border; this time, DHS is determined to purchase technology that meets performance standards and is delivered on time and at cost; DHS hopes to invest an additional $750 million to purchase mature sensor and surveillance technology; to ensure the project’s success, DHS is exploring off the shelf projects that can “plug and play” with hardware and software from other suppliers; contracts will be terminated if they are delivered late, fail to meet performance standards, or are over initial costs projections

  • U.S. gets more deeply involved in Mexican drug war

    As the war against Mexico’s deadly drug cartels rages on, American law enforcement agents are getting more deeply involved than ever before; the United States has primarily provided intelligence and training, while Mexican forces perform kinetic operations; despite these closely coordinated efforts to battle the drug cartels, U.S involvement has created friction on both sides of the border; Mexican officials downplay the presence of U.S. agents and their scope of responsibility fearing public backlash; critics in the United States fear that the violence is spilling over; the stepped up policing efforts have led to mixed results

  • New joint U.S. - Canada border surveillance post opened in Michigan

    Last month a sophisticated new surveillance center was opened in northern Michigan to monitor the U.S.- Canada border; the $30 million, 9,000 square foot facility, located at the Selfridge Air National Guard Base, will act as a joint command center for Custom and Border Protection, the FBI, Coast Guard, state and local law enforcement officials, and even Canadian police; the command center will receive real time feeds from eleven surveillance cameras installed on towers alongside the St. Clair River; agents at the new surveillance center will be keeping an eye on drug smuggling, human trafficking, and illegal crossings related to terrorist activity

  • ImmigrationHow many people from terrorism-sponsoring states enter the U.S. illegally?

    Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas) says the United States arrested people from nations designated as terrorism sponsors on the border with Mexico in the first nineteen months of Obama administration; an Austin newspaper investigated this claim and reached these conclusions: Cornyn is right that there were arrests of people from the four states designated by the United States as sponsoring terrorism (Cuba, Iran, Sudan, and Syria) — but: the number of people from these states arrested on the Mexican border is miniscule (0.02 percent of the 540,865 total arrests on the southwestern border in fiscal 2009); 87 percent of the people from these countries arrested while trying to enter the United States illegally do so through the Canadian border; and the numbers are dropping: there were 3,309 apprehensions of people from terrorism-sponsoring countries in 2005 (when Libya and North Korea were also on the list), 935 apprehensions in 2009, and 736 in fiscal 2010