The post-9/11 get-tough policy toward immigration has meant booming business for private prison-management companies; the building of prisons and detention centers is now a much-needed source of income for cash-strapped rural communities

Both supporters and opponents of the effort to enlist citizens to keep an eye on Texas’s border with Mexico agree that, so far, it has not worked; the question is whether to scrap the plan or continue to fund it

More and more government documents which U.S. citizens are now required to present at border crossings and entry points — e-passports, electronic PASS cards, enhanced driver’s licenses — are equipped with RFID tags so they can easily be scanned by readers; trouble is, they can be scanned through a pocket, backpack, or purse from thirty feet, opening the door for a digital identity pickpocketing

DHS Inspector General Richard Skinner says the CBP is using contractors to do what should be inherently governmental work; “With continued heavy reliance on contractor support services, CBP risks losing control of program decisions while remaining accountable for mission results”

Canada and the United States are the world’s two biggest trading partners — with $596 billion in trade in 2008; new report says that tight U.S.-Canada border rules are bad for business

Israel withdrew from south Lebanon in May 2000 to a border — called the Blue Line — demarcated by the UN; problem is, Israel erected a security fence along the border, and in several places that fence is to the south of the Blue Line; the question: Do Israeli cows grazing north of the fence but south of the Blue Line violate Lebanon’s sovereignty?

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency has deployed another UAV to the New York-Canada border; the New York deployment is part of a multi-agency effort called Operation Empire Shield

CBP Air and Marine currently operates a fleet of specialized, high-speed interceptor vessels that are approaching the end of their service life; the agency is testing a new interceptor in order to determine CBP’s next-generation fleet

Clear went out of business Friday; company may sell customer data to a TSA-approved provider