Border gatesFuturistic border gate system opens in El Paso

Unisys Corporation says it is assisting the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency in opening the first pedestrian border crossing in El Paso, Texas, that deploys a combination of gate systems, mobile handheld devices, and radio frequency identification (RFID) technology more efficiently to identify and process pedestrians crossing the border into the United States.

Additionally, ten fingerprint biometric capture devices are included in the gates nearest the inspection booth for future integration into the pedestrian system.

The Pedestrian Reengineering initiative is part of CBP’s Land Border Integration (LBI) project, implemented under a contract awarded to Unisys in 2010. At an event held yesterday in El Paso, CBP officials and members of Congress demonstrated how the technology works.

The LBI contract followed Unisys work on the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) contract, awarded in 2008. WHTI, which was implemented on 1 June 2009, at all land border ports of entry, uses automated license plate reader technology to screen vehicles crossing the border, as well as RFID technology to confirm citizenship and identity of travelers with WHTI-approved, RFID-enabled travel documents.

In a typical scenario using a reengineered pedestrian lane, travelers crossing the border on foot will approach a gate system and present their WHTI-compliant, RFID-enabled travel documents to electronic document readers. While travelers proceed to the primary inspection area, information identifying the travelers will be relayed to officers who will then determine whether they are admissible into the United States. The system is designed to allow pedestrians to cross the border more quickly while increasing security for the CBP officers.

The system was operational to the public using three existing pedestrian lanes as of 8 November at the Paso Del Norte port-of-entry in El Paso.