• U.S. considers waiving visa requirement for Israelis

    U.S. may add Israel to the Visa Waiver program in 2009, after Israel implements a new biometric passport for Israeli citizens

  • Briefly noted

    Dems want DHS to target criminal illegal immigrants… “A delicate balance” between port security and business requirements… Somalia: Pirate’s vital routes attacks cause shipping costs to soar

  • Alternatives to the H-1B visa, pt. 2: L-1 "International Transferees"

    The demand for H1-B visas far outstrips its supply; one alternative is the L-1 visa which allows companies to transfer employees to, and allows investors to form start-up operations in, the United States

  • Coast Guard chooses new patrol boat

    Years after Congress urged the U.S. Coast Guard to speed up its patrol boat replacement program, the service finally picked a design and a shipbuilder for its new cutters; the winner: Bollinger Shipyards

  • Coast Guard to expand biometric project

    There has been a 75 percent in the number of illegal immigrants attempting to cross the Mona Passage from the Dominican Republic into Puerto Rico in the past two years; the Coast Guard is not sure the drop is all due to the service’s biometric measures, but it thinks the technology has something to do with it

  • Texas county weighing border fence alternatives

    Cameron County, Texas, must decide which option is more beneficial to it: DHS’s fence plan which the county does not like, but which will see $37 million in contracts go to local businesses, or resubmitting the county’s alternative fence plan, which DHS had already rejected, exploiting the fact that DHS has postponed the 31 December fence deadline

  • Alternatives to the H-1B visa, pt. 1: O-1 "Extraordinary ability"

    The U.S. immigration services received more than 163,000 petitions for the 65,000 regular H-1B visas allocated for FY2009; the homeland security, hi-tech, and services sectors, as well as academic and research institutions, need another way to bring to the United States qualified foreign workers and researchers; one such way is the O-1 “Extraordinary Ability” visa

  • FAST-certified trucker tries to smuggle drugs into U.S.

    The Free And Secure Trade (FAST) program allows truckers who drive back and forth across the U.S. border to pre-register with Customs, thus giving them the status of low-risk traveler; one FAST-certified driver used status to smuggle drugs

  • Concerns over TWIC roll-out delays

    TWIC aims to provide 1.2 million U.S. port workers with forgery-proof biometric IDs; so far only 500,000 workers have been enrolled, and DHS pushed completion of enrollment from 25 September to 15 April; lawmakers are not happy

  • New York State offers an enhanced driver's license

    New York State leads the nation in the adoption of enhanced license technology, and state residents may now apply for an enhanced driver’s license; they have an incentive to do so, because beginning 1 June 2009 U.S. citizens will have to present either a passport or an enhanced driver’s license when re-entering the U.S. from Canada, Mexico, Bermuda, and the Caribbean

  • DHS: Progress and priorities, I

    Since its creation more than five years ago, DHS has made significant progress — uneven progress — in protecting the United States from dangerous people and goods, protecting the U.S. critical infrastructure, strengthen emergency response, and unifying department operations

  • The H-1B program: Mend it, don't end it

    Any required labor-market test must facilitate extraordinary alacrity; delays of years, months, or even weeks are unacceptable; similarly, H-1B workers should be paid the same wage as their U.S. counterparts: The H-1B program should not be a means by which “cheap foreign labor” is imported

  • DHS rejects Texas county border fence idea

    Cameron County’s, Texas, proposed to build miles of combined border wall and levee along the border’s southernmost point; DHS rejects proposal, saying it is not feasible

  • Drug smugglers now use minisubs; terrorists may use them, too

    Colombian drug smugglers now use “semi-submersibles” to smuggle drugs into the United States; counterterrorism officials fear that what drug runners now use to deliver cocaine, terrorists could one day use to sneak personnel or massive weapons into the United States

  • Verified Identity Pass gets back to RT business

    TSA suspended company from the Registered Traveler program after one of its computer, containing the personal details of 33,000 customers who had registered for the program, was lost; lap top was recovered and handed over to TSA for forensic review; company now allowed to register passengers