More than 500 million people cross U.S. borders every year, including 330 million non-citizens. Commerce and industry boost that traffic, as 11.2 million trucks and 2.2 million rail cars cross our borders annually.

And that is just the tally of traffic through 350 official ports of entry. Between those legal border crossings lie vast expanses of open space — the U.S. shares 5,525 miles of border with Canada, and 1,989 miles with Mexico.

Those large numbers mean that border agents cannot possibly check every car or every traveler. And under the constitution, citizens would not stand for it anyway. So the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is relying on new technologies to sort terror threats from legitimate traffic.

But do not expect to see robots replacing human inspectors, says Phil Anderson, senior fellow and director of homeland security at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a nonpartisan think tank in Washington. Humans are still the best at careful inspection and interrogation. Rather, technology can help the most by narrowing the field of suspicious characters, he says.

Biometrics offers "enormous potential" for that work. So far, biometrics is most useful in screening airline passengers, he says.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is working on a plan to ask frequent flyers to surrender some personal information, similar to a credit card application, and to surrender some biometric information, such as finger, palm, or iris. In return, each passenger would get a smart card so they could bypass lengthy security checks.

Likewise, inspectors look at just two or three percent of the six million cargo containers that enter the country every year, he says. Yet 60 percent of those containers come from the top 800 global freight handlers. If those handlers submit enough information, they could become trusted agents and whisk their boxes quickly through ports.

Eventually, the same thing will happen at border crossings. "A lot of this comes down to bring a numbers game," Anderson says. "You're never going to have enough people, whether you're the TSA, Border Patrol, Immigration, or whoever. So the goal is to reduce the population that's most frequently scrutinized. How much better would the TSA be if it were checking just 30 percent as many people?"

Of course, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has boosted border security with manpower, not just technology.

Until March 1, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) covered border security and immigration policy, but recently DHS broke those jobs into two new agencies — the Directorate of Border and Transportation Security, and the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Undersecretary Asa Hutchinson heads the BTS, which has 100,000 of DHS's 180,000 employees. BTS includes the new Transportation Security Administration, the Customs Service (formerly part of the Treasury Department), and the Border Patrol (formerly part of the Justice Department's INS), along with many others. This means that a single agency will now unite the inspectors at entry ports and the border patrol agents who work between those ports.

But checking every car and every container would crush business, and sacrifice Americans' freedom to travel. So DHS Secretary Ridge signed a Smart Border Declaration with Canada in 2001, and Secretary of State Colin Powell signed one with Mexico in 2002. Those plans balance contradictory goals — to protect both business and people.

Finding fraudulent passports

One goal of the smart border plan is to better track travelers. A first step toward that goal is to detect fraudulent and counterfeit identification cards, says Rick Outland, a senior document examiner for the U.S. Secret Service in Washington.

Outland manages the Counterfeit and Genuine Documents Database, an online repository where border officers can find fakes by comparing any given credit card, travelers check, birth certificate, or social security card to the real thing. "It's a windows-based program so someone at the border can pull up a genuine Maryland license to see what should be there, and compare it to the ID of the person trying to get through customs," Outland says.

The primary challenge is that the U.S. driver's license has become the de facto national identity card, although it was never designed to be a secure document, he says.

"There are over 200 valid forms of U.S. driver's license," Outland says. "It's hard enough to identify a Minnesota license in Florida, but when there are six different kinds of Minnesota license, it's even tougher. It's very difficult to train everyone, including the border patrol, to recognize all the variations of identification cards."

So the Secret Service and the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) are seeking a single feature to imprint on all U.S. licenses, such as the holograms on most credit cards.

"Every license would contain one unique feature that's the same," Outland says. "When a police officer in California on a 2am stop is looking at a Louisiana license, he really doesn't know what to look for. But this would be machine readable, so he could instantly tell if it's real."

That feature could be biometric — eight states are now using biometrics, or are in agreement to do it. However, since there are so many legacy versions of licenses, that approach would take many years to become effective. In Arizona, for instance, you get one type of license when you turn 16, another when you reach 21, and then you do not have to renew the card for another 25 years, Outland says.

What do driver's licenses have to do with border security? Since they are so easy to forge, they can act as breeder documents, which allow the user to obtain a genuine passport.

Fake passports are much easier to detect. Ninety-eight percent of counterfeiters are simulators, who simply scan some currency or passport into their desktop PC and produce a new version on their inkjet printer. But two percent of counterfeiters are duplicators, who can reproduce the document exactly.

The problem with most security measures is that they require extra training. Guards need a loupe or microscope to read microprinting, and they need a black light to see legitimate holograms. Likewise, guards would have to retrofit every border point to read smart cards with chips or radio frequency tags.

So in 2001, Outland co-founded the Document Security Alliance (DSA), an 80-member industry group that unites law enforcement and technology to find methods to prevent production of counterfeit ID documents. Government members include DHS, TSA, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Central Intelligence Agency, Social Security Administration, U.S. Postal Service, Department of State, Department of Treasury, and the White House. Industry members include producers of smart cards, credit cards, biometrics, security integrators, proximity cards, and card printers.

Biometrics lead the way

"Standard identity cards are very easy to duplicate, and if you paste your photo onto it, then for authentication purposes, you're it," says Jim Miller, another member of the DSA board. Miller is president and chief executive officer of ImageWare Systems in San Diego, Calif., a company that makes end-to-end solutions for secure identification cards, including the camera, database, network, and printers.

In fact, Miller's own identity was once stolen. A man and woman in California masqueraded for months as Miller and his wife, only getting caught when they tried to buy property in Nevada and an extensive credit check revealed the fraud.

Biometrics is the only way to prevent such fraud, he says. In 1997, ImageWare installed a facial recognition program for the Los Angeles Police Department. And while the core technology for border security remains the same, the biggest difference is the sheer volume of people who cross U.S. borders, Miller says.

But pictures take up a lot of space, whether they are of faces, fingerprints, or irises. How do you fit all that on a single ID card?

The answer is right in your home stereo system, says Stephen Price-Francis, vice president of business development for LaserCard Systems Corp. in Mountain View, Calif. An optical memory card, analogous to a compact disk, can store nearly three megabytes on the back of a standard-size ID card.

More than 6.5 million Mexican citizens are now using LaserCard's optical ID cards. Issued by the U.S. Department of State, they are called the Laser Visa, aka Border Crossing Cards (BCCs), used by people who frequently enter the U.S. for a short time. Seven million immigrants now carry an optical Green Card, authorizing them to live and work in the U.S. And 250,000 people carry the Canadian equivalent, an optical ID called the Maple Leaf Card.

Identifying containers

It is one thing to match a person to her ID card, but another challenge entirely to ensure that a truck or container matches its manifest. That is where portable x-ray systems come into play, enabling border agents to peek inside trucks and trains without unpacking them.

The traditional method is to use a transmission x-ray, which passes all the way through an object, as a doctor might scan a broken leg. But z-backscatter is a new method that uses reflective x-rays to produce a more photographic image. It also bounces best off objects with a low atomic number, such as hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen - which includes organic materials like drugs and explosives.

That is important when you are trying to scan more than 2,000 trucks per day at border crossings like Laredo, Calexico, and Otay Mesa, says Ralph Sheridan, president and chief executive officer of American Science and Engineering (AS&E) in Billerica, Mass. Since this interview, Sheridan has left the company.

AS&E has installed z-backscatter systems at the Tijuana-San Diego border and eight others. But the company's newest tool is a mobile version called the z-backscatter van (ZBV), demonstrated at the U.S. Marine Corps base in Quantico, Va. Last month. Border agents can scan a truck simply by driving past it at 3 to 10 miles per hour. And they can do it with stealth, since the unit looks like an innocuous delivery van.

Screening the tourists

People driving through border points in passenger cars do not have to wait for an x-ray of their cargo load, but thanks to the sheer volume of vehicles, they still face delays. Drivers at the southwest border crossings typically face a 90-minute wait each way, which adds three hours to a daily commute.

"So how do you make it easy for millions and millions of people to cross the border every day, but stop the one or two percent we want to catch?" asks Ken Ducey, president of Markland Technologies in Ridgefield, Conn.

One answer is SENTRI (secure electronic network for travelers rapid inspection). "If you're willing to give up some personal information, we'll give you an easy-pass lane through the border," he says.

Once a driver has completed his application and interview, he puts a transponder in his car. The next time he approaches the border, a scanner will read the transponder, photograph his license plate, and send the data to the Department of Motor Vehicles to see if they match. By the time the car reaches the booth, an agent has pulled up photographs of up to four people registered to that transponder, so he can quickly check if they are in the car.

The SENTRI dedicated commuter lane (DCL) is struggling with its own popularity. It is installed at five ports today: Detroit, Buffalo, San Ysidro (San Diego/Tijuana), Otay Mesa, and El Paso. But new members must wait months to enroll. So on April 24, DHS Secretary Ridge pledged to extend enrollment from one year to two, reduce the waiting period to three months by June, and create a pedestrian version by September. And for commercial traffic, Ridge pledged to create a "Free and Secure Trade" program called the FAST lane in El Paso, Texas, designed for truck drivers and importers.

Another initiative is the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT), founded in the spring of last year. If businesses can prove the security of their supply chains, BTS will open a frequent-flyer lane for their shipments. For instance, Canadian Pacific Railway of Calgary, Alberta, joined the partnership March 21 so it could speed cargo through its eight busiest border points. Other members include Ford Motor Co., Motorola, Sara Lee, and Target, as well as 2,900 other companies.

On May 12, Ridge tested the strength of border security with a massive terror attack simulation called TOPOFF2. The five-day exercise staged a radioactive explosion and biological agent release in Chicago and Seattle, and demanded close cooperation with Canadian forces.

And on May 19, Ridge launched U.S. -VISIT (visitor and immigrant status indictor technology), an automated entry and exit system. By the end of 2003, travelers at air and seaports will be able to use it to speed through customs checks by supplying biometric data to authenticate their documents. VISIT includes SEVIS (student and exchange visitor information system) and replace NSEERS (national security entry-exit registration system).

Smugglers do not cooperate

This part of the Smart Border plan works well for cooperative travelers. But most smugglers do not want anyone checking their cars or ID cards.

Called port runners, they will wait in line for 90 minutes, then when they reach the front row, they will hit the gas. Very few of them make it, but those that do often hurt themselves or others. At the San Ysidro crossing, 54 people did it in 2001, 76 in 2002, and many more tried driving the wrong way down the other side of the highway.

The standard way to stop port runners is with tire spikes, but those can throw a car out of control, endangering bystanders, Ducey says. But modern run-flat tires can keep going, and some desperate smugglers will even drive their cars on wheel rims until they are past the jurisdiction of border guards. Another option is cement bollards that pop up in the road, but that technique tends to kill the driver.

"We needed a system to slow a car, not stop it instantly, and not harm its occupants," he says. "Half the time, these cars are full of kids." Markland's Vehicle Stopping Systems (VSS) is the answer. Like a tennis net that pops up in the road, it can stop a car going 60 miles per hour with less than two Gs of force.

"Every booth has a port-runner button," Ducey says. "When the agent hits it, a gate comes down, which the driver usually smashes through. And then 40 or 50 feet further, a 12-foot wide net comes up and wraps around the car and tires." Wrapped in the net, the driver cannot even exit his car.

The net is made of a composite material like the nets that stop planes on aircraft carriers.

It is hidden in a trough in the roadway, then activated hydraulically. Agents can reset a net in about 15 minutes, he says.

Filling in the gaps

All those systems work well at legal crossings, but what about the space between the customs offices? Federal border patrol agents concentrate on hot spots along those enormous borders, using a system called RVSS (remote video security system).

The system uses 200-foot towers capped with three cameras; a daytime color, low-light black and white, and nocturnal infrared. They have huge lenses that can focus on targets up to five miles away, and distinguish a person's gender, body type, age bracket, and clothing color.

Such systems work, but they are "expensive and complex" says Robert Martinez, a member of the technical staff in the Border Research Technology Center (BRTC) at Sandia National Laboratory in Albuquerque, N.M. Funded by the U.S. Justice Department's National Institute of Justice, BRTC implements programs like the SENTRI commuter lanes, and supplies affordable technology to state and local law enforcement.

Smart smugglers avoid the heavy security at federally guarded border points, so they often run into local police forces, who do not have the resources to install RVSS cameras.

So BRTC has developed a cheaper system to fill in the gaps. They installed the first one in September, 2002 along the Rio Grande River in Valverde County, near Del Rio, Texas. They installed another in May in Sells, Ariz.

"I call it a poor man's RVSS," says George Wagner, also on the technical staff at BRTC. Each gap surveillance tower is just 40 feet tall, and uses a single type of camera, a low-light black and white version from Pelco. The system has motion detection and video archiving, and zoom capability that can distinguish between a deer and a man a mile away, he says. The system is built by SmartSight Networks in Laval, Quebec.

But the major difference is that the gap surveillance cameras use digital signals, so they are much more secure. RVSS systems use a microwave wireless video interface to send analog pictures back to a main base. The gap surveillance system is also wireless, but encodes, compresses, and transmits data digitally, using a digital spread spectrum that is much harder to eavesdrop or jam than the RVSS, he says.

That is crucial since drug smugglers have so much money that they are getting very sophisticated, with digital radios, night vision goggles, and tactics such as diversion ploys to test new sensors or cameras. "We went to see the site, and with 20 minutes, we saw spotters on the hills above the Rio Grande, on the Mexican side," Wagner says.

The new system has two towers with two cameras each. Together, they cover a four-mile stretch of the river, where local police had often found aliens and contraband.

The first challenge was the lack of existing infrastructure. But local landowners donated land for towers, electricity, and even labor.

Another challenge was the great distance between cameras and base, as far as 7.5 miles without a clear line of sight between the repeater and home base. Even with a 130-foot tower at the receiving end, BRTC engineers had to frequently tune the connection. "You can't circumvent physics, as much as you want to use these new technologies," Wagner says.

Also, most RVSS cameras are used in conjunction with ground sensors, to help aim the cameras, and to detect non-visual cues. But the hot spot for the gap surveillance was in a residential area, so sensors would have gone off constantly as they were tripped by people walking dogs, kids playing, and people having backyard barbecues.

Finally, BRTC had to train the local police. "The technology is pretty good, but another challenge is the two Ps: procedures and people. If you don't train your staff to use it properly, it's useless," Wagner says.

The Arizona installation will be even more difficult to install. The Tohono O'odham nation in Arizona's Sonoran Desert comprises four Papago Indian reservations, together 2.8 million acres, about the size of Connecticut. It stretches 90 miles across Arizona's southern border and straddles the Mexican border. Its Sells, Ariz. capitol is just southwest of Tucson, so traffic pours into its casino and industrial park. Its 24,000 native American residents move freely across the border.

It sounds impossible to secure the border in such a place, but Tohono O'odham is not unique. National parks, wildlife sanctuaries and Indian reservations occupy 36 percent of the 2,000-mile U.S. border with Mexico.

Helping the cameras

That is why most federal monitoring systems rely on a combination of cameras and sensors, says Steve Streetman, SENTRY product manager at ENSCO, a systems integrator in Springfield, Va. SENTRY is a computer system that interprets data from multiple sensors to minimize false alarms and automate response to real ones. The system has been used on military bases and at the Salt Lake City Olympics, and is in preliminary trials for use on the U.S. border.

"Cameras alone are not very effective, because you need someone looking at them the whole time. And with sensors alone, every time a jackrabbit crosses the border, you get an alert," he says. "So our approach is to put the systems together; put a camera on the tripwire and do some video processing, so you can corroborate or identify the signal."

Countries or military bases can deploy nearly any type of sensor along a border, depending on what they are trying to find. Frequent choices include: seismic, acoustic, electromagnetic, infrasound (low-frequency acoustic), passive radio frequency, electrooptical (camera), thermal (camera), chemical/biological/radiological/nuclear, meteorological, facility monitors (HVAC), facility security (doors), closed circuit television (CCTV), and passive infrared.

But even a wide array of sensors can cause problems. Seismic sensors will often generate two or three alarms as a single object passes through the field, Streetman says. Instead of asking patrol officers to sort through all those alerts, the SENTRY system would summarize the signals into a single message.

Another frequent challenge is that rain causes the soil to release radon, which trips radiological sensors. A simple anomaly detector would simply alert the guard, but the SENTRY system is designed to validate and qualify each alarm. Then it can characterize the target by combining signals from several sensors — saying that it is moving from left to right, and how fast. Finally, the system would suggest a response, such setting off sirens, or turning off the air conditioning in case of a chemical attack.

Learning from the military

In the near future, more advanced border security methods will probably borrow from battlefield solutions.

Every country has its own border challenges, says U.S. Coast Guard Vice Admiral (ret.) Timothy Josiah, the director for border, transportation, and energy security at Raytheon, in Lexington, Mass. "Some countries have significant types of problems on two or even three of their borders. They could use cameras, infrared, thermal, acoustic, or seismic sensors. They also have to tailor their choice to the terrain, whether it's mountainous, desert, or forests."

One solution is HISAR, Raytheon's system for airborne reconnaissance now used in 20 locations worldwide. Mounted in an airplane, UAV, or aerostat, the system uses multiple sensors, air and ground workstations, and data links, including infrared and long-range optical sensors.

Raytheon has dedicated a team to adopt a HISAR package for civilian border security. It is on the fast track, since all the capabilities exist, so will be ready for applications in a matter of weeks, Josiah says.

There is a strong analogy between border security and military C4ISR (command, control, communications, computer, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance), agrees Mike Barney, systems engineer for homeland security at General Dynamics Decision Systems in Scottsdale, Ariz.

A General Dynamics situation awareness engine called Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS) is now guarding the border between North and South Korea, using visual cameras, unmanned aerial vehicles, ground probes and sensors, and lasers. Combined with a GIS database, the system creates a map of the border overlaid with sensor output — General Dynamics engineers call it the "God's eye view."

The system can accommodate any type of sensor, mounted anywhere. A good option for remote borders is the remote control or autonomous vehicle, called a UGV (unmanned ground vehicle). "It has self-protective abilities, so someone doesn't just come along and tip it over. And it can sit in places you wouldn't want a person to be sitting for days on end," says Barney.

One major change between military and civilian border patrol is the reaction. "Nonlethal deterrence is the best answer in most border situations; you're not trying to kill anyone, you're just trying to get them to change their behavior," he says. The General Dynamics system deploys options like non-toxic dispersal agents, or a smart airbag that can instantly block a doorway.

Homeland Security Solutions June, 2003
Author(s): Ben Ames

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