Opportunity at the Borders
A man intending to cross the border between Mexico and the United States approaches from the south. The terrain is rugged — and as he crosses over the last hill, he encounters a corrugated steel wall, stretching east to west, as far as the eye can see.
Behind that wall is a bustling all-weather road, patrolled regularly by vehicles and foot traffic. Beyond the road is a network of fencing and barbed wire.
Spotlighting these fortifications are rows of stadium-style lights that shine throughout the evening. Surveillance cameras and other high-tech-looking equipment are lurking. There is air traffic overhead. Disheartened, the man turns back, seemingly frightened away by the specter of technology.
While it seems like a scene out of a science fiction novel, that vision of border security is similar to what President Bush has envisioned for the protection of the United States borders.
A similar line of virtually impenetrable fortifications already exists — it is sitting on a 6.9-mile stretch of the San Luis, Ariz., border with Mexico, and it was built by National Guard troops at Bush’s behest.
Bush toured the San Luis border area on May 18. He envisions similar fortifications across the entire 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border — and he has asked both Congress and the private sector to step in to make the vision a reality.
The vision: The Secure Border Initiative
President Bush took his border security concerns to the nation in a live television address May 15. He called for further support of the Secure Border Initiative and for the technology-driven SBInet.
“We’re launching the most technologically advanced border security initiative in American history,” Bush said. “We will construct high-tech fences in urban corridors, and build new patrol roads and barriers in rural areas. We’ll employ motion sensors, infrared cameras and unmanned aerial vehicles to prevent illegal crossings. America has the best technology in the world, and we will ensure that the Border Patrol has the technology they need to do their job and secure our border.”
As part of his wide-ranging initiative to reform immigration policy in the United States, Bush called for up to 6,000 National Guard troops to be stationed along the border for a year while new Border Patrol officers are trained and brought into duty. The Guard would be used to conduct surveillance, analyze intelligence and build the fences and vehicle barriers like those that already dot the San Luis, Ariz., area of the border.
Congress is also taking on border issues. Bush says the House of Representatives has passed a bill that focuses on border security, while the Senate has passed a bill to resolve the status of illegal immigrants already in the country.
The Senate recently voted 83-16 to build 370 miles of fence in areas “most often used by smugglers and illegal aliens” as determined by federal officials. The Senate also approved 500 miles of vehicle barriers.
The underlying Senate bill provides for a “virtual” fence along the border using cameras, sensors and other technology to monitor the border, with an estimated cost of roughly $3.2 million per mile, according to Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala).
“Boots on the ground is not really enough,” Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff says. “You’ve got to leverage those boots; you’ve got to make them as effective as possible. And the way to do that is more tactical infrastructure — things like fences, vehicle barriers and roads — and as important, next-generation technology.”
“You have to look at putting together an integrated technology package, using all the equipment that’s out there that you can choose from,” he adds. “It has to be presented to us as something that will be fully integrated with the operators. So that, for example, we won’t have the problem of sensors that are not fully integrated with the operators, or sensors that are not linked to the cameras.”
Story Quick Links
- Bush’s SBI Plan at a Glance
- Border Security by the Numbers
- Contractors in the Running
- Citizens on Patrol the Texas technology plan
- Barriers On the Fence
- Protecting our Borders A Resource Guide
Technology comes into play
Bush’s Secure Border Initiative (SBI) may have opened the flood gate on potential security business opportunities along the southern border. The opportunities come in the form of SBInet — a component of SBI assigned to Customs and Border Protection that is responsible for integrating personnel, infrastructure, technologies and rapid-response capability.
SBInet aims to combine existing investments and current security initiatives with new technologies. While SBI focuses more on the comprehensive strategy of border control and immigration enforcement, SBInet’s need to integrate technology into border enforcement applies directly to the security industry.
“The industry has been waiting for this for years,” says Matt Farr, Homeland security analyst for research firm Frost and Sullivan. “When the Department of Homeland Security was formed, it was not the windfall that people in the security industry were expecting. The industry is really jumping up and down over this one.”
Already, five defense contractor-led conglomerates have put in bids for the estimated $2 billion SBInet contract. Each of the defense contractors — including Raytheon, Northrop-Grumman, Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Ericsson — has already or is expected to form a team with smaller security companies to provide the needed technology.
The smaller companies can, for example, apply to be on one of the defense contractor’s teams. The Raytheon Web site makes this offer: “Small and minority-owned businesses that have the unique capability to help Raytheon are encouraged to apply to join our team.” An interested company may fill out an extensive form explaining its technology and how it would add value to the overall SBInet solution.
The SBInet project as a whole calls for using computer networks, ground sensors, robotic aircraft, satellite imaging and other technologies to link together the hodgepodge of federal, state and local entities that operate with varying authority along the borders with Mexico and Canada.
“It requires the right mix of personnel, technology and rapid response capability to secure our border,” says Michael Friel, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The Department of Homeland Security plans to award its first contracts by Sept. 30, Friel says.
Technology proposals
Once the DHS has awarded the umbrella contract for a comprehensive systems integrator, it is likely that smaller security companies will flock to offer their range of surveillance and sensor technologies.
But the DHS is not interested in simply buying “gizmos,” Deputy Director Michael Jackson said at an industry conference in January.
“This is not about bleeding-edge technology,” Jackson said. “Time is short. Demand is big. The problem is large. We’re impatient, and we’re going to get on with this. We’re putting a priority on things that work — with proven methods, techniques and technologies.”
One such proven border technology is the infrared camera, which exposes threats hidden in the darkness, concealed by adverse weather, and veiled by obscurants like dust, fog and smoke that easily blind other technologies.
“Thermal imaging is a valuable tool that enhances safety and operational effectiveness,” says Andy Teich, president of FLIR Systems, Billerica, Mass., a thermal imaging camera manufacturer. “Camera networking technology is one example of a development at FLIR that supports border security. With intelligent video processing, the software recognizes humans, and allows each camera to act as a set of eyes that never blink. This reduces the number of camera operators and the fatigue associated with watching several cameras.”
Thermal imaging is one example of the various technologies a security company could offer to SBInet. Here is another example: Distributed Instruments, Sterling Heights, Mich., has developed a surveillance sensor network powered by a chain of aerostats — or tethered balloons — to provide a broadband wireless network for sensor data and surveillance platforms for digital video. The sensors can be integrated with a chain of ground sensors that enable listening devices and other monitors.
Story Quick Links
- Bush’s SBI Plan at a Glance
- Border Security by the Numbers
- Contractors in the Running
- Citizens on Patrol the Texas technology plan
- Barriers On the Fence
- Protecting our Borders A Resource Guide
“The President’s objective cannot be met only with barbed wire,” says Lt. Gen. Robert M. Elton, U.S. Army (Ret.), chairman of Distributed Instruments. “Precision sensor technology is the most practical, cost-effective and politically acceptable solution.”
DHS is clearly hoping to capitalize on tactics and technologies that defense officials adopted in U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. One key element in the agency’s plans appears to be the Predator B, a robotic surveillance plane made in San Diego by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems.
In a $14.1 million contract awarded last September, DHS acquired its first Predator B to fly surveillance missions along the border with Mexico. The plane — which carried surveillance equipment capable of seeing through the clouds to the ground at 50,000 feet — crashed in Arizona on April 25, about 10 miles north of Nogales.
Friel says operators lost contact with the drone as it patrolled the border at around 15,000 feet. Efforts to re-establish contact were unsuccessful, and now DHS is working to acquire another plane. Bush’s cadre of National Guard troops did not bring any unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) with them to the border, but the Border Patrol is reportedly set to acquire another UAV for $6.5 million this summer.
Skepticism still abounds
Many defense contractors and government security industry veterans may be having a minor case of deja-vu when it comes to SBInet. After all, the industry has had big technology-purchasing expectations in the past.
“They thought after the Sept. 11 attacks that Homeland security was going to be a gold mine,” Frost and Sullivan’s Farr says. He adds that many companies made big commitments to develop technologies for an Integrated Surveillance Intelligence System (ISIS) under a program called America’s Shield Initiative, announced by DHS in 2004.
Inadequate funding and a series of procurement missteps forced DHS to kill the program, Farr says.
“I’m extremely skeptical — but not because the security industry cannot accomplish the task,” Farr says. “Look at the [DHS] track record. ISIS failed miserably because it is so difficult to achieve — they didn’t realize how difficult it would be to put sensors and cameras in the middle of nowhere.”
ISIS failed technologically because, according to testimony by DHS Inspector General Richard Skinner, the components were not “integrated to the level predicted at the program’s onset.” Remote cameras and sensors were not linked — whereby an underground sensor alert automatically activates a corresponding camera in the direction of the triggered sensor.
On a governmental level, ISIS experienced “significant delays and cost overruns in the procurement of the remote video surveillance system,” Skinner said. In other words, it cost far more to purchase and install the video systems than the government anticipated.
Will that happen again?
“Two billion dollars might be shortchanging the system,” Farr says. “There are 6,900 miles along the northern and southern border that could be either a desert or freezing. Two billion might be wishful thinking for 7,000 miles of harsh terrain.
“But this industry will figure it out,” Farr adds. “It will just be a rocky process.”
Story Quick Links
- Bush’s SBI Plan at a Glance
- Border Security by the Numbers
- Contractors in the Running
- Citizens on Patrol the Texas technology plan
- Barriers On the Fence
- Protecting our Borders A Resource Guide
Bush’s SBI Plan at a Glance
Here is a list of the border security issues involving immigration and immigrants.
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Allows illegal immigrants in the country five years to remain, continue working and become legal residents after paying fines, back taxes and learning English.
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Requires illegal immigrants in the U.S. between two and five years to go to a point of entry at the border and file an application to return.
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Requires those in the country less than two years to leave.
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Creates a guest worker program for an estimated 1.5 million farm workers.
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Provides up to 325,000 temporary visas a year for future workers.
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Adds up to 14,000 Border Patrol agents by 2011 to the current force of 11,300 agents, for a potential total of 25,300.
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Authorizes additional detention facilities for apprehended illegal immigrants.
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Requires employers and subcontractors to use an electronic system to verify new hires are legal within 18 months.
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Increases penalties up to $20,000 per illegal worker and jail time for repeat offenders.
Border Security by the Numbers
700 The number of National Guard troops deployed to the U.S.-Mexico border by President Bush in early June — boosting the overall number of agents to more than 1,000.
2,500 The number of National Guard troops projected to be stationed on the U.S.-Mexico border by July.
6,000 The number of National Guard troops President Bush has pledged to send to the southern border to assist the Border Patrol until new agents are trained and deployed.
2 The number of unmanned aerial vehicles planned to patrol the southern borders.
$14 Million The cost of the Predator-B spy drone aircraft that crashed for unknown reasons in late April on the border near Tuscon, Ariz.
$2 Billion The projected spending on information technology for the Secure Border Initiative, according to INPUT, Reston, Va.
6 Million The number of people apprehended by the Border Patrol while trying to enter the United States during the last five years, according to a speech by President Bush.
$5 Million The cost of Texas governor Rick Perry’s plan to deploy hundreds of night-vision cameras on private land along the Mexican border.
2,800 The total number of beds in detention facilities along the southern border. Bush would increase the number of beds by 4,000 in his proposal.
Story Quick Links
- Bush’s SBI Plan at a Glance
- Border Security by the Numbers
- Contractors in the Running
- Citizens on Patrol the Texas technology plan
- Barriers On the Fence
- Protecting our Borders A Resource Guide
Contractors in the Running
Here is an overview of the five contractors who have bid on the $2 billion SBInet contract. The Department of Homeland Security is expected to award the first contracts by the end of September.
Boeing Co., Chicago
TEAM MEMBERS: DRS Surveillance and Reconnaissance Group, Palm Bay, Fla.; Kollsman Inc., Merrimack, N.H.; L-3 Government Services Inc., Washington, D.C.; L-3 Communication Systems – West, Salt Lake City; Perot Systems, Plano, Texas; and Unisys Global Public Sector, Reston, Va.
Ericsson Inc., Plano, Texas
TEAM MEMBERS: Computer Sciences Corp., El Segundo, Calif.; Fluor Corp., Irving, Texas; SYColeman Corp., Arlington, Va., a division of L-3 Communications; MTC Technologies, Dayton, Ohio; Camber Corp., Huntsville, Ala.; AEP Networks Inc., Somerset, N.J.; Texas A&M University; and the University of Texas at Austin.
Lockheed Martin, Bethesda, Md.
TEAM MEMBERS: to be announced
Northrop Grumman Corp., Los Angeles
TEAM MEMBERS: Anteon International Corp. and SRA Intl., Fairfax, Va.; BearingPoint, Inc., McLean, Va.; L. Robert Kimball and Associates, Ebensburg, Pa.; HNTB Corp., Kansas City, Mo.; L-3 Communications Titan Group, San Diego; and General Dynamics, Falls Church, Va.
SOLUTION PROVIDERS: EMC Corp., Hopkinton, Mass.; ESRI, Redlands, Calif.; Hughes Network Systems LLC, Germantown, Md.; Motorola Inc., Schaumberg, Ill.; Sprint/Nextel, Reston, Va.; Oracle Corp., Redwood Shores, Calif.; Identix, Minnetonka, Minn.; and Nortel, Ontario, Canada.
Raytheon Co., Waltham, Mass.
TEAM MEMBERS: Apogen Technologies Inc., McLean, Va.; BAE Systems Inc., Rockville, Md.; Bechtel National Inc., Frederick, Md; Deloitte Consulting LLP, New York; and IBM, Armonk, N.Y.
Citizens on Patrol the Texas technology plan
TEXAS GOVERNOR RICK PERRY PLANS TO CALL ON THE HELP OF BOTH TECHNOLOGY AND THE CITIZENS OF HIS STATE IN THE COUNTRY’S BORDER SECURITY MISSION.
Saying “Texas must never wait for Washington to act,” Perry has authorized a $5 million technology plan, under which hundreds of night-vision cameras will be deployed on private land along the Mexican border. The video feeds will be broadcast live on the Internet, so that anyone with a computer who spots illegal immigrants trying to make it across the border can report it on a toll-free hot line.
“This is no different than neighborhood watches,” Perry says. “By leveraging advanced video technology and the power of the World Wide Web, and with an increased financial commitment from the state of Texas, we can make our border stronger and our nation safer.”
Perry says the cameras will cover vast stretches of farm and ranch land located directly on the border where criminal activity is known to occur, and “not the neighborhoods where families will continue to enjoy their privacy.”
“Landowners will be able to monitor and defend their property from those who might endanger their families,” Perry continues. “We will make the video feed available to state, local and federal law enforcement agencies so they can respond swiftly and appropriately.”
For more on the plan, visit Perry’s Web site, http://www.governor.state.tx.us
Story Quick Links
- Bush’s SBI Plan at a Glance
- Border Security by the Numbers
- Contractors in the Running
- Citizens on Patrol the Texas technology plan
- Barriers On the Fence
- Protecting our Borders A Resource Guide
Barriers On the Fence
The vision of barriers and fences are about to become more common in border security applications. The Chain Link Fence Manufacturers Institute (CLFMI) is already actively working to make sure that fencing is an integral part of the overall U.S. border security plan.
“We are not suggesting that chain link is the right product for every situation,” CLFMI president Paul Harrison told World Fence News. “However, we do want the Department of Homeland Security to understand that chain link can be a problem solver in many situations.”
CLFMI has released a white paper on how chain link fencing can be an essential part of the Secure Border Initiative.
“For many years, fences and other physical barriers have been integral to border security,” the white paper says. “For SBI to be successful, these systems will have to perform at a higher level, including the ability to support sophisticated surveillance equipment, the strength to deter vehicular intrusions and the versatility to work in many different settings.”
CLFMI says the physical security barrier provided by a chain link fence supports surveillance, detection, assessment and other security functions by providing a zone for installing intrusion detection equipment and closed-circuit television (CCTV). The fence also creates a psychological deterrent.
Protecting our Borders A Resource Guide
Apple Computer, www.apple.com/r/store/government/state/epp.html, 1-800-MY-APPLE. All government employees can now receive up to 17% off Apple products. FREE shipping on orders of more than $50.
Master Halco, www.masterhalcosecurity.com, 1-877-337-4358. For 45 years, Master Halco has been the leader in perimeter barriers and boundary protection across North America. Contact our Security Solutions Group today.
FLIR Systems, Inc., 800-727-FLIR, www.flir.com FLIR Systems’ thermal imaging products provide a level of threat detection unmatched by any other technology. FLIR offers a comprehensive range of thermal and daylight/lowlight imagers to satisfy any range or portability requirements.
Pelco, Pelco.com, 800-289-9100; 559-292-1981. Pelco is a world leader in the development and manufacture of video security systems, offering high-quality products and exceptional customer service.
Folger Adam EDC, www.folgeradamedc.com, 1-800-260-9001. Folger Adam produces the highest quality electric strikes in the industry for high-security requirements in commercial, industrial and institutional facilities.
Securitron Magnalock Corp., www.securitron.com. Securitron Magnalock Corp. is a world leader in providing electro-magnetic and electromechanical access control products.
HES, www.hesinnovations.com, 1-800-626-7590. HES is a leading manufacturer of electric strikes and locking devices for the access control industry.
Verint Video Solutions, www.verint.com/videosolutions, 866-NEXTIVA or 866-639-8482. Nextiva™ is an enterprise-class video management platform that provides superior scalability and interoperability with other enterprise systems and simplifies management of distributed video operations.
L-3 Communications Infrared Products, www.Thermal-Eye.com, 1-800-990-3275. L-3 Communications Infrared Products are the results of unmatched depth and breadth of specialized infrared experience serving the military, homeland security and public safety.
Wanco, www.wanco.com, 1-800-972-0755 Wanco’s Portable Surveillance systems provide an effective tool for any organization needing an easily deployed temporary unit. With an onboard power system, DVR, and wireless communications, Wanco Portable Surveillance is not limited by many of the requirements of a typical surveillance system.