• Reliable measurement, program evaluation, and institutional memory: The Border Patrol’s new national strategy

    What the Border Patrol vitally needs, along with all our members of Congress, is an adequate measurement of Border Patrol performance which, placed within an historical context, allows anyone to fairly and consistently judge the progress of this vital law enforcement agency regardless of which party holds power; instead, what we may likely see from the Border Patrol new National Strategy, announced on Tuesday, 8 May, is a multi-million dollar quagmire metric generated by a one-of-a-kind software package premised upon the Border Patrol’s same old unreliable data — apprehension rates; or, worse still, an opaque metric which is classified so the public has no idea what it really measures or leaves out

  • Aware provides biometrics products for border management systems

    Aware’s software products will be used for biometric enrolment, watch-list checks, verification, and workflow in Europe, the Middle East, and North America

  • New approach to U.S. border security

    CBP has unveiled a new approach to securing the U.S.-Mexico border; the new strategy puts less emphasis on technology, and more on risk analysis; the Border Patrol believes it now knows enough about those who try to cross the border to begin imposing more serious consequences on almost everyone the agency catches; in January the Border Patrol expanded its Consequence Delivery System to the entire border, dividing border crossers into seven categories, ranging from first-time offenders to people with criminal records

  • Border security bill would harm U.S. National Parks: environmentalists

    A bill pending in the U.S. House of Representatives would suspend the enforcement of almost all the U.S. environmental laws on all lands under the jurisdiction of the Departments of the Interior and Agriculture within 100 miles of the northern border with Canada and the southern border with Mexico; the 100-mile zone includes fifteen National Parks which cover 21,657,399 acres, or nearly 25 percent of the overall footprint U.S. National Park System; supporters of the bill claim it would bolster border security, while environmentalists say it would gut a century’s worth of proven federal lands protection

  • Increasing effectiveness of border patrols by making them random

    A new study finds that combining historical data on illegal border crossings with unpredictability and randomness of patrols would be the most effective approach to increase interdiction of illegal border crossers

  • DHS brings military technology to border surveillance

    The long list of products and equipment developed for the military but which were adapted to and adopted by civilian and law enforcement agencies has a new entry. Add to the list the Kestrel: a L-3 Wescam MX 360-degree camera mounted to a Raven Aerostar aerostat

  • Small UAV wins Border Security Product Challenge award

    A small surveillance UAV catches the eye of law enforcement and the military; it is an electric-powered, lightweight, portable system that fits in a small rucksack. Its modular design enables assembly and launch in less than two minutes

  • Surveillance technology along the border

    A South Dakota blimp maker has one of its airships take part in a border security technology demonstration; the demonstration was put together to allow the CBP to evaluate a new surveillance system for use on the border

  • SFO launches program to battle human traffickers

    San Francisco International Airport is now home to the first program in the nation that trains airport personnel in identifying and stopping human traffickers

  • DHS to propose visa exit tracking system

    DHS is in the midst of completing its plan to establish a biometric exit system for immigrants when they leave the United States; the plan has been devised amid growing concerns about terrorists who entered the country legally, but continue to stay long after their visas had expired

  • U.K. police learning to battle cartels in El Paso

    This week law enforcement officers from the United Kingdom are in El Paso, Texas to train with DHS; the special agents from the U.K.’s Serious Organized Crime Agency are in town specifically to learn how to combat the growing threat of trafficking

  • CBP considers expanding unmanned checkpoints along southern border

    Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials are considering introducing more unmanned checkpoints at ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border

  • El Paso woman hit by stray bullet from Mexican gunfight

    On Tuesday a woman in El Paso, Texas was hit by a stray bullet from a Mexican gun battle more than half a mile away

  • 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