Border Security - page 258

The fiscal 2008 homeland security budget allots $2.7 billion to emergency spending on border security. It also provides about $1.2 billion to “customs and border protection fencing, infrastructure, and technology” under the Secure Border Initiative Network (SBInet) program. The White House has requested another $2 billion for SBInet in fiscal 2009. Those funds remain available until spent.

Nowhere is the impact of new security measures being felt like on the border—whether it’s in the length of lines to go through border checkpoints or in the coffers of state treasuries. Keep Reading

To the Editor:

I am a captain with the Valley Regional Fire Authority in the Seattle area and veteran of 28 years in the fire service. Last year I attended a recertification class for a swiftwater rescue instructor endorsement in Golden, Colorado. In that class were two Border Patrol agents who were training so that they could rescue illegal immigrants who find themselves in life-threatening water emergencies. They were part of the Special Operations Division (as I am in the fire department) and extremely well trained and disciplined.

President George Bush’s border security plan, announced on May 15, provoked a range of responses in Mexico, but some common points became immediately apparent.

By Mickey McCarter, HSToday Senior Washington Correspondent

As the deadline for submitting proposals to serve as the prime contractor for the Secure Border Initiative (SBI) at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) approaches, the large-scale integrators in competition for the role are expressing optimism that DHS is on the right track with the program.

With urgency and political pressures growing, the question of securing US borders is moving up in Congress. The debate has led to some odd political alignments—and radically different solutions.

Usually reserved for natural disasters or other national calamities, the state of emergency declaration isn'ttaken lightly. So in August, when officials in two southwestern states threw up their hands in disgust and declared states of emergency to describe their states'immigration battles, allowing them to tap into disaster funding to fight theproblem, the nation took notice. The declarations freed up $1.5 million in funding for border counties in Arizona and $1.75 million in New Mexico.

The inspirations that prompted DHS to change its point of view from solely looking at ASI to expanding its vision to SBI likely sprang from Secretary Chertoff's Second Stage Review, said Hank Chase, a counterterrorism expert at Smart and Associates LLP, headquartered in Devon, Pa.

ASI will be an integrated, national web of border security with centralized command designed to gain greater control of US borders with Canada and Mexico, according to the administration’s FY 2006 budget request. ASI is intended to not only dramatically improve US electronic surveillance capabilities along the southern and northern borders but to significantly strengthen… Keep Reading