Border securityUsing data analytics to target human smugglers
Human smuggling is big business. The financial cost can be as high as a few thousand dollars to cross the border from Mexico to the United States, while immigrants from China might pay tens of thousands for their cross-Pacific journey. Some estimates put illegal crossings at 350,000 per year—and that’s just coming over the U.S.-Mexican border. DHS S&T’s Igloo data analytics software program is currently in use by select units of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
Human smuggling is big business.
The financial cost can be as high as a few thousand dollars to cross the border from Mexico to the United States, while immigrants from China might pay tens of thousands for their cross-Pacific journey. However, no amount of money guarantees successful entry into the United States, or even survival. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s statistics, hundreds die attempting to get into the United States every year.
Due to the secretive nature of the lucrative, yet illegal underground market of human smuggling, accurately gauging the number of people who are smuggled into the United States is extremely difficult. Some estimates put illegal crossings at 350,000 per year—and that’s just coming over the U.S.-Mexican border.
Looking for Solutions
With a crisis of this magnitude, special agents are always looking for a technological edge—and they may have found one in a data analytics software program called Igloo.
S&T says that Igloo was developed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T), and is currently in use by select units of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the lead agency for investigating human smuggling.
Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs), which often perpetrate this illegal activity, reap massive profits from their crimes, including human trafficking and smuggling, drug smuggling, and illegal financial transactions. They represent a significant threat to life, property, and the rule of law—a threat that HSI works to dismantle.
To do that, it relies on intelligence. However, law enforcement is only as good as the intelligence they can act upon—and it is only as good as the timely and accurate analysis of data. With the abundance of information available in today’s world, agencies are faced with a deluge of data that they need help analyzing. S&T’s Borders and Maritime Director Jon McEntee explained that HSI desired greater automation of their investigative processes for rapid identification of targets and networks.
And that’s what Igloo does.
