• U.S. constructing $4.3M maritime fence to stop smugglers

    To prevent drug traffickers and human smugglers from entering the United States via boat, border authorities are constructing a steel and concrete barrier 300 feet out into the Pacific Ocean just south of San Diego

  • Border Patrol begins construction on outpost in remote corner of N.M.

    In New Mexico’s remote Bootheel region, drug smugglers and illegal border crossers will no longer be able to slip through undetected by Border Patrol agents; U.S. Border Patrol recently announced that it was building a new outpost in one of the last unguarded regions along the southwestern border

  • CBP overtime costs soar, agency seeks solutions

    Over the past six years U.S. Border Patrol agents have accrued more and more overtime pay at the same time that the number of arrests for illegal crossers has fallen to record lows; the cost of overtime has rocketed from roughly $156 million in 2006 to more than $331 million in 2011, with DHS spending more than $1.4 billion total during that time period

  • CBP considers relocating agents to stop corruption

    With the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) struggling to prevent corruption within its ranks, the Obama administration is considering rotating border agents to other locations to separate them from the powerful Mexican drug cartels and their bribes

  • Clearing trash along borders becomes increasingly dangerous

    Cleaning up the trash left behind by illegal border crossers is becoming increasingly more difficult and dangerous as immigrants move towards more remote areas

  • Battling smugglers along Canadian border

    To help stem the flow of drugs across the porous northern border, federal authorities are working closely with tribal law enforcement agencies on Native American lands near Canada, providing equipment and training

  • Lockheed delivers fourth upgraded P-3 to CBP

    On Wednesday Lockheed Martin delivered a fourth upgraded P-3 Orion aircraft to U.S. Customs and Border Protection

  • Was/is border National Guard really worth it?

    Since 2006, National Guard troops have been deployed to the U.S.-Mexico border under the assumption that they would help bolster security; with little training, Congressional oversight, or analysis, it is difficult to say how effective the National Guard Troops were; $1.35 billion later, was it really worth it?; as Congress authorizes another $60 million to keep troops stationed along the border, we must ask once more, was it really worth it?

  • Every day, every minute CBP serves

    In the first column in an ongoing series featuring contributors from the North American Center for Transborder Studies (NACTS) at Arizona State University, Rick Van Schoik, the center’s director, provides an overview of U.S. Custom and Border Protection’s broad mission as well as the key challenges the agency faces in securing the nation’s borders

  • Cross-border security application integrates data from diverse sources

    An application unites data from local, regional, and federal public safety agencies in a common operating picture; the data is integrated with feeds available from Web sources (weather, road and air traffic, nautical conditions), and displays the data on an interactive map and timeline

  • ICE union slows Obama’s deportation policy shift

    An internal disagreement within DHS is hampering the implementation of President Obama’s new immigration strategy which focuses primarily on deporting immigrants convicted of violent crimes

  • DHS IG critical of ICE deportation review process

    DHS Inspector General’s report on U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (ICE) handling of the review process of 300,000 pending deportation cases offers ammunition to critics of the administration’s immigration policies

  • Feds to unseal portions of slain border agent’s case

    Federal prosecutors have agreed to unseal portions of its case against the people who stand accused of slaying Brian Terry, a U.S. Border Patrol agent killed in the line of duty while deployed near the Arizona-Mexico border

  • DHS launches hotline for jailed immigrants

    DHS recently announced that it is launching a new hotline for people who believe they have been falsely imprisoned on immigration charges or victims of a crime

  • Border fences impede black bears’ movements

    A new study finds that fences along the Arizona portion of the U.S.– Mexico border are hindering the natural movement of black bears