Border monitoring / protection

Mexican cartels smuggle oil to US
Mexican drug cartel have a new revenue stream: they siphon oil from Mexican government pipelines and smuggle it into the U.S., where the oil is sold to refineries
- Read more
U.K. MPs have doubts about a biometrics IT system for screening students
The Home Affairs Committee looked at the role of the National Biometric Identity Service (NBIS) in student visa applications as part of a report into migration processes; universities have already voiced their concerns that the enrollment of students will depend on the untested NBIS, and the MPs say they share this concern
- Read more

Coast Guards interdicts smugglers' semi-submersible
Latin American drug lords now rely on semi-submersibles to smuggle drugs into the United States; the other day, the USCG interdicts one semi-submersible in the Eastern Pacific
- Read more
Concerns over E-Verify effectiveness as illegal immigration detentions drop
The Obama administration has mandated that by 8 September, all contractors who do work with the federal government must use E-Verify to ensure their prospective employees can legally work in the United States; senators say it is too easy to fool the current E-Verify system
- Read more

EADS wins large Saudi border protection deal
EADS’s win of the massive Saudi border fencing contract, valued at $2.3-2.8 billion, is part of the defense contractors effort to use homeland security projects as a means to bolster its revenues
- Read more
The business aspects of get-tough immigration policy
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
- Read more

U.S., Colombia in a deal for surveillance of drug trade, terrorists
The Pentagon has to find a new site for anti-drug flight operations after Ecuador declined to extend the lease at Manta
- Read more
Virtual border system ineffective, out of cash
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
- Read more

Officials complain about northern border policy
Five-hundred government officials, policy experts, and business leaders from the United States and Canada gather to discuss the impact of security measures along the U.S.-Canada border on commerce; their conclusion: What is good for the U.S.-Mexico border may be unsuitable for the U.S.-Canada border
- Read more
RFID-enabled official IDs raise privacy fears
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
- Read more

Mexican drug violence threat major concern to U.S.
DHS assistant secretary Alan Bersin: “We take the threat of spillover violence very seriously… We’re prepared to deal with it in the event it occurs. There are contingency plans to respond”
- Read more
DHS IG: SBI lacks effective oversight
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”
- Read more

Technological integration offer best means to protect Canada-U.S. border
The integration of several technologies — remote sensing, motion activated imaging sensors, below ground sensors, and thermal cameras — when coupled with policy coordination, offer the best means to enhance the security of U.S.-Canada border
- Read more
Local flexibility required to ease border crossing, facilitate commerce
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
- Read more
IBM signs U.K. biometric passport deal
IBM signs a £265 million contract with the U.K. Border Agency’s (UKBA) to provide UKBA with fingerprinting capabilities and run the database that will store the facial images and fingerprints needed to keep the passport in line with international standards
- Read more

More headlines