With 8,000 miles of borders to police, the U.S. Border Patrol used to be most concerned about smugglers and illegal aliens sneaking across the boundaries. Today, the Patrol also has to worry about more dangerous invaders waiting in the darkness for a chance to cross over. These invaders could be terrorists bearing weapons of mass destruction or toxic agents to unleash on Americans.

The U.S. Border Patrol's new and urgent mission is to stop them.

To carry out this critical role, the Border Patrol needs many new tools and processes. These include enhanced training to help agents carry out their new responsibilities, better equipment to detect potential threats, an improved command and control structure, and an enhanced information technology (IT) infrastructure compatible with other agencies that, like the Border Patrol, are now part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Moreover, with many DHS initiatives on a fast track toward implementation over the next few years, the Border Patrol must modernize quickly to process and share information on terrorist threats with the rest of DHS.

"The Border Patrol is pursuing a full-blown enterprise modernization project," says Robert Jensen, a MITRE multi-discipline systems engineer. "Since 9/11, antiterrorism has become part of the Border Patrol's mission and is now its number one priority. And that involves a whole new role it's never had before, which relates to the prevention of weapons of mass destruction coming across the border."

A MITRE team is working with the Border Patrol on its long-term effort to produce an upgraded technological and business infrastructure for the agency, which will support the new tools and processes. The team draws expertise from across MITRE, with staff from the Center for Enterprise Modernization (CEM), the Washington Command, Control, and Communications (WC3) Center, and the Center for Integrated Intelligence Systems. The team is working hard to expedite the Border Patrol's transition to a full-fledged professional law enforcement agency with a major role in preventing terrorists from entering the country.

"There is some pressure to get certain capabilities on the ground very quickly, and very quickly means within the next six months," says Gary Brisbois, manager of CEM's Homeland Security Program. "There's a lot of push from President Bush and from DHS Secretary Tom Ridge to make sure that happens."

It will be a complex job. Brisbois estimates that developing and deploying a system of the kind the Border Patrol needs would normally take up to 15 years. But he also believes MITRE's prior experience with similar military, homeland security, technical, and business challenges can help the Border Patrol get its upgraded system deployed much faster than that. MITRE already knows much about the Border Patrol's needs, having helped the agency shape a strategic plan to meet its post 9/11 responsibilities.

"The Border Patrol has been asked to essentially apprehend both goods and people between ports of entry. We have worked with Customs on how it handles these responsibilities, and we've worked with the Coast Guard on port security issues and how to process visitors to the United States at the port of entries," says Gene Cross, MITRE senior vice president and director of CEM. "So I think MITRE's in a unique position to help the Border Patrol take a system engineering approach to order management. That's really what they needed, and that's why they came to us."

Getting Up to Speed

The strategic plan MITRE has helped the Border Patrol to craft outlines objectives to be achieved over the next six years. The team has laid out some time-phased goals based on the needs of the entire enterprise, including modernizing the agency's technical infrastructure and providing anti-terrorist training for agents. The plan, which has been approved by Border and Transportation Security Undersecretary Asa Hutchinson, will provide a framework by which business and technical planners in the Border Patrol, and the rest of DHS, understand each other's needs and set priorities with the whole enterprise in mind.

"The technology's always the simplest part of this process," says Cross. "What's not so simple is getting people who have never really worked together effectively at this level to essentially look at an integrated order management process. That's not been done jointly before. Today, Customs, the Coast Guard, and the Border Patrol all have to work together."

The strategic plan will provide the context for the immediate needs the Border Patrol must address to make its transformation complete. Two of the most urgent areas are upgraded technology and an enhanced command and control capability.

At the moment, the typical tools of a Border Patrol agent are a land mobile radio, a gun, and a flashlight—essentially the same tools that have been in use for decades. The agency does have a program called the Integrated Surveillance Intelligence System, which uses cameras placed along the borders to help identify and apprehend undocumented aliens. But much of the equipment the Border Patrol uses is powered by technology dating from the Vietnam War.

With maturity comes not only the capability to improve those processes but also to employ them at the program level to manage and integrate, efficiently and predictably, the various projects that have been chartered to develop new systems

"The Border Patrol has had very little technological advancement over the past several years," says Jensen. "Your typical policeman that pulls you over in his car has more equipment than these folks have."

MITRE is addressing this by developing an office technology roadmap for the Border Patrol, which will provide recommendations on potential technologies the agency can use. There are many possibilities, including netted sensors and video and wireless communication. MITRE's role will be to advise the Border Patrol on the current state of the market and new versions of existing technology.

New Applications for a Changing Mission

One key insight MITRE brings to the program is the knowledge that technology devised for one customer can be retooled to meet another customer's needs. That approach should speed up the task of improving the Border Patrol's command and control capability.

For example, MITRE's "Blue Force Tracking" technology—which we developed for the military, and was used extensively in the Iraq war—can be valuable to the Border Patrol. The purpose of Blue Force Tracking is to enable friendly forces, regardless of their location, to communicate with each other and coordinate and execute battle plans against an enemy. This approach can also be applied to identifying and stopping terrorists attempting to bring weapons or deadly toxins across the U.S. border.

MITRE has also introduced new technologies for conducting surveillance over wide areas to the Border Patrol.

Such innovation will come in handy as the Border Patrol steps up its antiterrorism efforts along the U.S. borders. Earlier this year, the agency launched Project Arizona Border Control, which will bring together an array of law enforcement officials at all levels to increase security along the southwestern border, with help from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), helicopters, and fixed-wing aircraft.

The Border Patrol is also increasing its presence along the U.S.-Canadian border, an area which has not been a high priority for the agency in the past and where advanced sensor technology can help boost surveillance and command and control capability in many remote areas.

"The new technology is very modular in the sense that it can be moved and applied to those areas that are currently the most critical and then be spread out," says Brisbois. "Because of MITRE's involvement, it can be easily integrated with all the other components of DHS's infrastructure. So we have a leg up on identifying all of the critical interfaces and interactions that have to occur to make it a useful product and to flow information both ways."

Putting the Border Patrol's whole new plan into effect will take time and, even then, there may still be a few holes for intruders to slip through. But the hope is that, with new technology, as well as new intelligence and command and control capabilities, the Border Patrol can close those holes more quickly and apprehend anyone who might unleash a terrorist attack on the U.S.

"The new flexible approach will create an element of unpredictability in someone's ability to cross the border," says Cross. And it improves the Border Patrol's chances of catching them.

—by W. Russell Woolard

Related Information

Atricles and News

• Satellites Guide Soldiers to Safety (Blue Force Tracking)

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• U.S. Border Patrol

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