An amendment that is likely to pass this week during debate on a Senate bill to reform immigration policies contains a detailed list of the various surveillance systems and their numbers that will have to be deployed to obtain 100 percent surveillance of the nation’s southern border, one of the conditions that needs to be met for illegal immigrants currently in the United States to achieve a path to citizenship.
The Senate on Monday evening voted 67-27 to invoke cloture on the amendment offered by Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and John Hoeven (R-N.D.), allowing the measure to be debated and then voted on, which is expected to occur this week.
The Southern Border Security Amendment includes plans provided by Customs and Border Protection for sensor and other technology deployments along the southern border, including California and Texas. When the Department of Homeland Security in January 2011 canceled its marquis border technology program, called the Secure Border Initiative Network (SBInet) that was managed by Boeing [BA], it released a plan for the deployment of SBInet-type technologies and other sensors for the Arizona border (Defense Daily, Jan. 18, 2011). Since then, the focus of the new technology programs has been on the Arizona border.
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| Boeing SBInet Sensor Tower. Photo: Boeing |
The Corker/Hoeven amendment lists the various technologies and systems to be deployed at a minimum sector by sector, including between the ports of entry and at the ports of entry. For example, in the Border Patrol’s Yuma and Tucson, Ariz., sectors, it calls for 50 Integrated Fixed Towers (IFT), 73 fixed camera systems, which include the Remove Video Surveillance Systems (RVSS), 28 mobile video surveillance systems, which include agent-portable surveillance systems, 685 unattended ground sensors (UGS), 22 handheld devices, such as thermal imaging systems and night vision goggles.
In the El Paso, Texas region between the ports of entry, the amendment calls for the deployment of 27 IFTs, 71 fixed camera systems, 31 mobile surveillance systems, 170 UGS, 24 handheld devices, one communications repeater, a sensor repeater, and two camera refreshes. At the ports of entry, which are monitored by CBP officers, the measure calls for four non-intrusive inspection systems to screen vehicles and cargo, 23 fiber optic tank inspection scopes, one portable contraband detector, 19 radiation isotope identification device updates, and eight personal radiation detectors.
The equipment lists are similar for other Border Patrol Sectors and CBP ports of entry, although the numbers vary widely and some of these also require radiation portal monitors and license plate readers.
CBP is currently hosting a competition for the IFT and RVSS systems.
As for Air and Marine operations, the amendment call for the deployment of four new unmanned aircraft systems, six airborne VaDER radar for tracking slow moving ground targets such as people, 17 UH-1N helicopters, eight C-206H aircraft upgrades, eight AS-350 light enforcement helicopters, 10 UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter A to L conversions, five new Black Hawk M helicopters, and 30 marine vessels.
The amendment does give DHS discretion to use alternate or new technologies that are at least as effective as those described in the measure if they provide a similar level of security.
The amendment authorizes spending up to $38 billion over 10 years for various security measures, including fencing and other actions, which is on top of the $8 billion in funding called for in the larger immigration reform bill, the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act. Those other actions include hiring at least 19,200 additional Border Patrol agents for duty along the southern border at a cost of $30 billion over 10 years.
Supporters of the immigration reform bill hope to bring the legislation up for a vote before the Senate before the July 4 recess. The bill aims to provide illegal aliens that are currently in the country a path to permanent residency over at least a 10-year period while also strengthening border security.