Post-SBInet border securityDHS and CBP make a pitch to border security vendors

The first phase of DHS’s Secure Border Initiative Network (SBInet) covered fifty-three miles of the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border at a cost of nearly $1 billion. Faulty technology and endless delayed engendered criticism from lawmakers and the Government Accountability Office (GAO), and last month led DHS to cancel the $7 billion project altogether.

SBInet was failure, and now border protection agencies plan to reassess their goals and implement a single, integrated high-tech solution.

Laura Peterson, a representative at Taxpayers for Common Sense placed the blame on Congress and DHS for the program’s current state: “Neither Congress nor DHS went into this enormously expensive program with any real benchmarks for succeeding. So how can you be effective when you don’t know what you’re trying to do?”

Despite criticisms, the state and federal authorities agree that a secure border is a top priority for the nation to slow down, if not prevent, human trafficking and the smuggling of drugs and arms. According to the U.S. Department of State, 14,500 to 17,500 people are estimated to be “trafficked” by smugglers into the country per year, while more than 30,000 have died in Mexico since 2006 as a result of the drug-related violence there, violence fueled by American demand for drugs. The $1.3 billion allocated by Congress in 2008 to help Mexican drug-interdiction efforts also suffered from a lack of oversight (“GAO: U.S. aid to Mexico’s anti-drug efforts needs better oversight, 23 July 2010 HSNW).

Boeing’s failure to provide a reliable border security solution has opened up opportunities for border protection technology vendors. These opportunities are offered by DHS’s proposed Integrated Fixed Towers (IFT) acquisition program which aims to replace SBInet.

The Request for Information (RFI) issued by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) seeks insights into market conditions and scientific advances that will aid in the formation of an acquisition strategy for border technology solutions. Ideal IFTs will be able to provide automated, persistent wide area surveillance and the ability to detect, track, identify, and classify illegal entries in order to properly respond to border incursions. Depending on budget decisions, a request for proposals (RFP) might be issued late this FY with contracts being awarded well into 2012, DHS officials said.

The request has been met with skepticism by critics who believe the department will run into difficulties finding commercially available tools that meet the technological specifications that can function under the region’s intense heat.

Regardless of the technological constraints hampering the securing of the border, CBP still manages to processes close to a million passengers and pedestrians on a daily basis. According to a snapshot of their activity, they also execute 2,139 apprehensions between the ports for illegal entry and 107 arrests of criminals at ports of entry, and seize 6,643 pounds of narcotics.

Comments on the RFI from vendors were due by 8 February 2011. Rick “Ozzie” Nelson, director of homeland security and counterterrorism program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, finds the requests to be an interesting and appropriate move by DHS: “I hope the vendors that respond to the RFI will make [the challenges] clear; that’s a very aggressive set of objectives that CBP has put forward. And meeting all those objectives is a pretty significant request.”