SDSU project could help guard the border

Imaging project detects new illegal immigrant routes

By EDWARD SIFUENTES - esifuentes@nctimes.com
February 6, 2010 7:20 pm

A computer program under development at San Diego State University could help immigration authorities detect illegal immigrant routes along the U.S.-Mexico border, says a professor working on the project.

The program uses high-resolution photographs taken from airplanes or satellites to find new trails being cut by illegal immigrant smugglers, said Murray Jennex, a software and mechanical engineer.

With the new tool, authorities would be able to make better decisions about where to send U.S. Border Patrol agents to protect the border, he said.

"What this does is, it monitors the border for changes, new trails, new tunnels and new trends in border traffic, with the idea of how to allocate resources," Jennex said.

In another project, two UC San Diego professors are developing a cell phone tool that would help illegal immigrants cross the treacherous border safely.

For more than a decade, the federal government has ramped up the use of technology along the border to curb illegal immigration and disrupt drug traffickers.

Spurred by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Congress approved building hundreds of miles of border fencing in 2005.

As part of the border security initiative, then-President George W. Bush developed a plan to build a "virtual fence," made up of a network of cameras, ground sensors and radars designed to monitor the border for illegal immigrant and drug traffic.

Jennex said the program he is working on would give Border Patrol agents a bird's-eye view of the border.

It would take images from unmanned aerial vehicles, airplanes or satellites and string those images into one continuous picture of the 2,000-mile-long U.S.-Mexico border or the northern border with Canada.

Those images could be compared with later images of the border and analyzed by the computer program for changes, Jennex said.

Those changes could be new piles of dirt from tunnel digs or vegetation displaced by the footpaths used by illegal immigrants, he said.

A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security said that because the project is still in the development stages, the agency has not determined whether it would be helpful in its mission.

"There is a long way to go from this current level of basic research to a point where decisions could be made on whether or not a technology will be useful, deployable and cost-effective enough to put to use," Department of Homeland Security spokesman John Verrico said.

San Diego State University is part of the Department of Homeland Security's National Center for Border Security and Immigration, based at the University of Arizona.

Through the center, the federal government works with universities to conduct scientific research on national security technologies, including Jennex's project, Verrico said.

While the imaging project sounds like it could be promising, TJ Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, the union that represents rank-and-file Border Patrol agents, said the federal government also needs agents to guard the border.

"You have to have boots on the ground," Bonner said.

Bonner said he was not familiar with Jennex's project.

He questioned whether it would be cost effective because it would require constant surveillance by unmanned drones, which cost several million dollars each.

Bonner pointed to the virtual fence program, which he said is expensive and has yet to prove its effectiveness.

The federal government estimated that the virtual fence would cost $6.7 billion to cover most of the U.S.-Mexico border by 2014.

But that program is now in jeopardy.

Washington has ordered a reassessment of the whole idea. And the outlook became gloomier last week when President Barack Obama proposed cutting $189 million from the venture.

A prototype virtual fence in southern Arizona has been in use for nearly two years.

The first permanent 23-mile stretch along the Mexican border near Sasabe, Ariz., was supposed to be handed over to the Border Patrol for testing early this year.

But the handover by the main contractor, Boeing Co., the giant airplane and aerospace company, has been delayed by problems involving the video recording equipment.

"We want to secure our borders, but there is a lot of healthy skepticism from taxpayers," Bonner said. "In the end, it's going to be Border Patrol agents that intercept the people coming illegally across the border."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Call staff writer Edward Sifuentes at 760-740-3511.

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