Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has awarded Unisys (UIS) a potential $350 million contract over five years to expand the use of technology the company initially installed to monitor and identify vehicle traffic entering the country at the nation’s land borders for wider use at border checkpoints.
The contract has a one-year base value of $29 million and four one one-year options worth up to $25 million each. The ceiling value is $350 million over the five-year period, allowing the government to add additional scope if desired, Unisys says (TR2, Oct. 27).
The Land Border Integration (LBI) program builds on CBP’s work under the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI). Under WHTI, CBP awarded Unisys a contract in 2008 to deploy radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, including related hardware and software, and license plate readers, to the 113 land ports of entry in the United States. Unisys used license plate readers provided by Perceptics.
In part, WHTI pares down the number of acceptable travel documents that U.S. and Canadian citizens can use to enter the U.S., making it easier for U.S. officials to determine the authenticity of the documents.
The technology component takes advantage of RFID-enabled travel documents, such as passport cards, pass ports and enhanced drivers licenses, by allowing CBP officers at the border checkpoints to know who is approaching in their vehicle. The license plate readers give the CBP officers information about the vehicle such as if it is stolen. Combined, the technology aids the CBP officers in their questioning and assessment of people entering the country, facilitating travel and at the same time allowing for improved security.
Under LBI, Unisys will begin deploying components of the technology to inbound pedestrian crossings, outbound vehicle lanes, and Border Patrol checkpoints that are typically 25 miles or so inside the U.S. for immigration checks, along the southwest border with Mexico, CBP officials tell TR2.
WHTI “gave us the ability to package our vehicle and passenger data,” says Colleen Manaher, direct of the LBI Program Management Office. “You can just imagine the benefits for the targeting in our intelligence capabilities when you have that ability to package that data to tie people to vehicles to a time, to a place to an entry.”
Based on the lessons from WHTI, which include efficiencies in facilitating travel, Manaher said CBP realized that it could apply similar solutions to the pedestrian, outbound, and Border Patrol checkpoint operations.
“Sort of a triangle strategy to share that information,” Manaher says.
Last year 42 million people entered the U.S. via pedestrian crossings, most of them coming from Mexico. Pedestrian access points have largely been neglected for a half century or more and the infrastructure remains constrained and adequate staffing is an issue.
As with the occupants of a vehicle entering the country, a CBP officer will question pedestrians as they enter the U.S. However, this aspect of border security “has not been a mission area that we’ve even looked at,” Manaher says. “We’re still stuck in a time warp.”
Pedestrian Pilot
Manaher says that within a year CBP hopes to pilot the RFID technology at pedestrian lanes at the El Paso, Texas, port of entry to provide a heads up to the CBP officers about the individuals who are approaching. El Paso was selected because of the volume of pedestrians, which can reach 18,000 per day, she says.
“It’s all about advanced information,” she says. “We’re trying to figure out the bad guys well in advance and get them out of the general mix of population.”
Once an LBI solution for El Paso’s pedestrian crossings is providing the intended results, CBP hopes to roll the solution out at other pedestrian checkpoints long the southwest border, Manaher says.
For outbound vehicle traffic CBP expects the LBI deployment to go relatively smoothly although it too will likely begin with a pilot effort with subsequent deployments to follow shortly thereafter, says Chris Milowic, LBI Branch Director, Passenger Systems Program Office, Office of Information Technology at CBP.
For inbound traffic CBP is typically looking for drugs and illegal aliens. For outbound traffic the agency is looking out for money and guns headed into Mexico.
Milowic expects the technology deployments at the inland Border Patrol checkpoints to be similar to the inbound deployments of the past two years, saying they should be able to roll out without any pilot testing.
By being able to track vehicles and people entering and leaving the U.S., CBP will better be able to track individuals entering and exiting the country.
“[It] Goes back to how we package that information,” Manaher said. “If we can start tying it inbound to checkpoint to outbound, what more targeting capability could we have that we can make informed decisions when we we’re working these pulse and surge activities on outbound.”
She also say that the RFID technology lays a “great foundation for the future” to add other capabilities such as biometrics as part of border security solutions. A biometric would make it easier to authenticate documents, she says.