Frontline USA: Privatizing Border Security

Immigration and border security has become a frontline in US politics and a key battleground in the race for the White House. So, big stakes on the political front, but also big money, and big questions, with the same private contractors from Iraq now involved in building a high-tech fortress America.

The news program “Frontline USA” travels to the US-Mexico border to examine how big business is positioning itself to tap into the lucrative border security market. One of the first to get there was Boeing – America’s second largest defence contractor - with Project 28, a so-called “virtual fence” to police 28 miles of border near Tuscon, Arizona, a high traffic area for migrants.

Although the program focuses on the southern border, many of the initiatives in question are also being looked at for securing the US border with Canada. Earlier this month, DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff told senators on the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, “We are going to have technology on the northern border, but it’s going to be a different array than what we have at the southern border. We currently have a combination of infrared seismic sensors which are in the ground, remote and local video surveillance systems, and then of course at the ports of entry we have radiation monitoring devices.” Chertoff said there are also plans to have an unmanned aerial surveillance system at the northern border. Canadian Trade Minister David Emerson has sounded increasingly frustrated in recent weeks with what he has called a “bottom-up thickening” of the border.