• Northern Skies Provide the Backdrop for Testing Border Security Tech

    The purpose of demonstrations and tests recently conducted in Montana North Dakota was to evaluate specialized air domain awareness technologies such as radar systems; electro-optical and infrared cameras; radio frequency detection systems; and acoustic devices to see how effectively each can monitor, safeguard, and secure the various terrains and airspace that surround the northern border between the U.S. and Canada.

  • An App for Safe Handling of Drones

    Nearly every day, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents come across drones that may have been used to facilitate the movement of illicit drugs or people across the southern border. These drones usually carry smuggled narcotics and often contain surveillance cameras; however, they could easily be modified to carry other threats or hazards.

  • Migration Is Rising, but So Do Border Barriers

    The global population grew by a quarter over the past 20 years, but the numbers of refugees and asylum-seekers doubled in the same time frame. Today, one in 97 people is forcibly displaced. In 2015, it was one in 175. The trend of rising migration parallels another trend that attempts to halt or at least manage the first, as more and more countries are building, or announcing, various border wall complexes.

  • Evaluating Border Security Technologies on the Plains (and in the Skies) of North Dakota

    Safeguarding and securing the northern border against threats and illegal activities, such as human trafficking and smuggling of illicit drugs, presents unique challenges because of its various distinct landscapes and multiple points of entry into the country.

  • Analyzing Forensic Signatures of Nuclear Materials to Prevent Smuggling

    A scientific exercise scenario involved seized nuclear materials for which law enforcement requested nuclear forensic analysis to help discern whether the process histories of the two seized materials were consistent with one another and related to similar materials seized previously by authorities. The exercise was part of an international nuclear forensic drill in support of a simulated nuclear smuggling investigation.

  • DSI Border Security & Intelligence Summit: Leveraging Intelligence Collection and Analysis to Mitigate Threats to the Homeland

    Defense Strategies Institute will hold its 8th Border Security & Intelligence Summit on 29-30 July 2020 in Alexandria, Virginia. This year’s summit will focus on the policies and technologies aiming to help secure the U.S. homeland by bolstering the protection and security of the nation’s borders. The theme of this year’s summit is “Enhancing Homeland Security Through Intelligence Sharing and Targeted Enforcement.”

  • DHS CBP Selects JEOL Mass Spectrometers for Five Labs

    JEOL USA has been awarded a contract by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Customs and Border Protection (DHS-CBP) for five JEOL AccuTOF-DART Direct Analysis in Real Time, Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometers. The AccuTOF-DART systems will be used by CBP scientists as a non-destructive, rapid means to analyze many types of forensic samples including drugs, suspected controlled substances, unknown substances, and general organic materials.

  • Catching Nuclear Smugglers: Fast Algorithm Enable Cost-Effective Detectors at Borders

    Nations need to protect their citizens from the threat of nuclear terrorism. Nuclear security deters and detects the smuggling of special nuclear materials—highly enriched uranium, weapons-grade plutonium or materials that produce a lot of radiation—across national borders. A new algorithm could enable faster, less expensive detection of weapons-grade nuclear materials at borders, quickly differentiating between benign and illicit radiation signatures in the same cargo.

  • Protecting U.S. Northern Border with the Slash CameraPole

    The border between the United States and Canada is the longest in the world. It stretches across remote wilderness for 5,525 miles, from Maine to Alaska, and presents a formidable surveillance challenge. Though the terrain can be treacherous, illegal crossings and smuggling still occur. However, a unique opportunity for detection exists in the form of a cleared stretch of land at the border that is approximately 20-feet wide, 1,349 miles long, and is referred to as the “Slash.”

  • Greece to Deploy Floating Barrier to Stop Migrants in Aegean Sea

    The Greek government is considering installing a “floating protection system” to stop migrant arrivals from the Turkish coast. The system would involve setting up nets or barriers to stop boats making the crossing. The barrier would be put in place north of the island of Lesbos, where migrants often make the crossing over a relatively short stretch of water. The plan is one more indication that the conservative government, under Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, has taken a tougher stand on immigration since coming to power last year.

  • Worldwide displacement tops 70 million

    The number of people fleeing war, persecution and conflict exceeded 70 million in 2018. This is the highest level that UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, has seen in its almost 70 years. The UN Refugee Agencysays that the number of people displaced – 70.8 million — is double the level of 20 years ago.

  • Combatting human trafficking

    Law enforcement organizations across the United States have recently arrested multiple people charged with various crimes that include organizing, operating or paying for services from human trafficking rings. “Human trafficking is not synonymous with human smuggling,” notes one expert.

  • Legal experts: Emergency declaration may not be quickest way to build wall

    Even if President Donald Trump gets his way, eminent domain lawyers say a variety of legal issues would arise surrounding private land seizures that could delay wall construction for years — and even derail it entirely.

  • Using social science to combat human trafficking

    Worldwide, an estimated 20.9 million people are victims of sex trafficking, forced labor, and domestic servitude, collectively known as human trafficking. It is estimated that human trafficking generates billions of dollars in illegal profits annually, making it second only to drug trafficking as the most profitable form of transnational crime. Human trafficking doesn’t only happen abroad; it occurs throughout the U.S., including in urban, suburban, and rural areas. DHS launches a campaign to combat human trafficking.

  • Denmark starts building anti-swine border fence

    In a controversial move, Denmark, hoping to stop the crossing of disease-carrying German swine into the hog farming region on Denmark, has begun building a border fence along its 40-mile border with Germany. Denmark says the fence is essential for saving the Danish hog farming industry from collapsing. Denmark is the only European country where pigs outnumber people. The country exports about €4 billion of pork each year.