Borders/Immig

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
- Read more
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
- Read more

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
- Read more
TSA keeps list of people who forgot driver's licnese, passport at home
TSA began storing the information in late June, tracking many people who said they had forgotten their driver’s license or passport at home; the database has 16,500 records; agency says it is changing its policy on the list
- Read more

Microchips in e-passports easily forged
Dutch researcher uses his own software, a publicly available programming code, a £40 card reader, and two £10 RFID chips to clone and manipulate two passport chips to a point at which they were ready to be planted inside fake or stolen paper passports; the altered chips were then passed as genuine by passport reader software used by the UN agency that sets standards for e-passports; the researcher took less than an hour to alter the chips
- Read more
Agreement reached over border fence on U Texas campus
Part of the U.S.-Mexico border fence would have cut across the campus of the University of Texas-Brownsville/Texas Southmost College; the university and DHS reached a compromise — but the university must finish building its proposed border protection solution by the end of the year
- Read more

TSA may fine airlines over mistaken terrorist IDs
The ACLU says there are one million names on the DHS terrorist watch list, while TSA says there are only 400,000; whatever the exact figure is, TSA wants to make sure that the airlines do not misidentify innocent passengers as terrorists, and threatens to sue airlines which do so
- Read more
New Zealand to use biometrics to monitor immigration
Technology will allow border control staff to conduct biometric checks on inbound and outbound passengers
- Read more

RFID readers installed along U.S. borders
Today the first Border Patrol RFID readers go into use at El Paso, Texas, border crossing; during the next two months many more RFID readers will be installed in order to speed up traffic across borders
- Read more
US-VISIT
James Jasinski, CEO, Cogent Systems, comments on a young program that is discharging an immense responsibility
- Read more

ACLU: Terrorist Watch List hits one million names
ACLU claims terrorist watch list reached one million names; launches online watch list complaint form
- Read more
TSA: ACLU’s terrorist watch list facts and figures are a myth
The Transportation Security Administration refutes the facts and figures used by the ACLU in the latter’s claim that the list is now 1-million strong
- Read more

Debate over environmental impact of border fence continues
The San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area is part of the U.S.-Mexico border, and all agree that the area’s ecosystem is particularly delicate; DHS wants to build a fence there, but environmentalists object
- Read more
DHS wants nearly 60 border watch towers
DHS proposes nearly five dozen towers, ranging from 80 feet to 200 feet tall, to be erected in rural areas in Arizona
- Read more
University of Texas sues DHS over border fence
UT systems files motions in court last week asking that the court demand that DHS comply with a March settlement detailing how the fence would be built on part of the UT-Brownsville campus
- Read more

More headlines