Border Security: Understanding Threats at U.S. Borders

[Excerpt] The United States confronts a wide array of threats at U.S. borders, ranging from terrorists who may have weapons of mass destruction, to transnational criminals smuggling drugs or counterfeit goods, to unauthorized migrants intending to live and work in the United States. Given this diversity of threats, how may Congress and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) set border security priorities and allocate scarce enforcement resources? In general, DHS’s answer to this question is organized around risk management, a process that involves risk assessment and the allocation of resources based on a cost-benefit analysis. This report focuses on the first part of this process by identifying border threats and describing a framework for understanding risks at U.S. borders. DHS employs models to classify threats as relatively high- or low-risk for certain planning and budgeting exercises and to implement certain border security programs. Members of Congress may wish to use similar models to evaluate the costs and benefits of potential border security policies and to allocate border enforcement resources. This report discusses some of the issues involved in modeling border-related threats

Trafficking in Persons: U.S. Policy and Issues for Congress

[Excerpt] This report focuses on international and domestic human trafficking and U.S. policy responses, with particular emphasis on the TVPA and its subsequent reauthorizations. The report begins with a description of key TIP-related definitions and an overview of the human trafficking problem. It follows with an overview of major foreign policy responses to international human trafficking. The report then focuses on responses to trafficking into and within the United States, examining relief for trafficking victims in the United States and discussing U.S. law enforcement efforts to combat domestic trafficking. The report concludes with an overview of current anti-trafficking legislation and an analysis of policy issues

A meta-architecture analysis for a coevolved system-of-systems

Modern engineered systems are becoming increasingly complex. This is driven in part by an increase in the use of systems-of-systems and network-centric concepts to improve system performance. The growth of systems-of-systems allows stakeholders to achieve improved performance, but also presents new challenges due to increased complexity. These challenges include managing the integration of asynchronously developed systems and assessing SoS performance in uncertain environments. Many modern systems-of-systems must adapt to operating environment changes to maintain or improve performance. Coevolution is the result of the system and the environment adapting to changes in each other to obtain a performance advantage. The complexity that engineered systems-of-systems exhibit poses challenges to traditional systems engineering approaches. Systems engineers are presented with the problem of understanding how these systems can be designed or adapted given these challenges. Understanding how the environment influences system-of-systems performance allows systems engineers to target the right set of capabilities when adapting the system for improved performance. This research explores coevolution in a counter-trafficking system-of-systems and develops an approach to demonstrate its impacts. The approach implements a trade study using swing weights to demonstrate the influence of coevolution on stakeholder value, develops a novel future architecture to address degraded capabilities, and demonstrates the impact of the environment on system performance using simulation. The results provide systems engineers with a way to assess the impacts of coevolution on the system-of-systems, identify those capabilities most affected, and explore alternative meta-architectures to improve system-of-systems performance in new environments --Abstract, page iii

Fishing for Security

Often viewed through a myopic lens as an environmental issue or one relegated to fisheries authorities, illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing affects all coastal nations in the Western Hemisphere and has national security implications on the United States. A regional problem requires a regional solution and greater cooperation across agencies, private industry, and governments. Actions to address IUU fishing in Latin America have the potential to achieve greater aims of maritime security in the region. The report will frame the problem of IUU fishing by first highlighting its overall impacts globally and regionally. Food security, employment, national revenue, and other illicit activities are discussed. The report concludes with recommendations for interagency and regional coordination.https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/jgi_research/1041/thumbnail.jp

The Smugglers\u27 Landscape: Geography, Route Selection and the Global Heroin Trade

This study focuses on transnational smuggling, and puts forth an analytical framework from the smugglers\u27 perspective with respect to route selection, focusing primarily on aspects of economic, political, and human geography. It is predicated on three interconnected decision-making domains that constitute the smuggler\u27s operational landscape, namely access, risk and connectivity, which interact to drive the smugglers\u27 perceptions of route attractiveness. The first two domains operate reciprocally, primarily at the national level of analysis, and together both shape and are shaped by the third at the transnational level to form a feedback loop. With respect to connectivity, the convention of the smuggling vector is also introduced. As a benchmark commodity, heroin is used to demonstrate the utility of this approach with the primary aim of applying and validating the generic geographic smuggling model, meant to be extensible in terms of space, time and commodity. A review of the literature, focusing on the range of smuggled commodities, the nature and evolution of smuggling actors, the complex relationship between smuggling networks and nation-states, and potential modes of transportation by land, water and air. A discussion of the spatial parameters of the global heroin trade itself, with specific reference to the geography of supply and demand, is also undertaken. For case studies, Afghanistan has been chosen as one of the two largest opium cultivators worldwide, as well as by virtue of its recent and dramatic history. In addition to established cocaine smuggling routes and methods, Colombia has also become a primary heroin source country with respect to the U.S. market. Finally, Nigeria is a known transit hub without being a center of production, demonstrating that factors other than mere proximity can be decisive. Each case study first examines those geographic and historical factors that shape heroin smuggling at the national level, focusing on the themes of terrain, tradition and domestic turmoil, before considering the various sets of smuggling vectors that proceed outward via various modes and points of transit to their final destinations. This methodology not only highlights data gaps inherent in analyzing black markets, but also optimizes extant sources of information

Mitigating Crime Risks in the International Logistics Network:the Case of Swiss Post

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 raised major concerns about the vulnerability of global transportation systems to transnational crime and terrorism. Although the attacks occurred in the context of passenger transport, they spurred unprecedented academic research on supply chain security (SCS). Alas, today, more than a decade later, theoretical underpinnings of the SCS discipline remain weak. First, the extant SCS literature offers only a cursory and ambiguous view on the risks that SCS management addresses. Second, the academic research offers little evidence of how security solutions affect security and logistics performance. Due to the scarce and conflicting scientific evidence, managers and authorities are having a difficult time securing the supply chain without disrupting trade and logistics operations. This thesis comprises three research phases that seek to address the two crucial weaknesses of the current academic knowledge. The first phase intends to identify and characterize risks that the SCS management addresses and capture them under a unified theoretical frame â a taxonomy of supply chain crimes. The taxonomy results from a study of managerial descriptions of crime problems that occur or could occur in the supply chain context. The second phase aims at producing a research agenda and at isolating principles for logistics-friendly design of security systems through a synthesis of peer-reviewed academic SCS literature. The synthesis is done using the so-called systematic literature review technique, which follows a prescribed and transparent protocol devised to reduce researcher bias and increase transparency of the review process. The third research phase describes the international postal service from the perspective of Swiss Post, putting a special emphasis on postal security management and law enforcement. The later case study analysis tests validity of the supply chain crime taxonomy and aims to generate evidence-based concepts for improving the postal security management. Research findings imply that supply chain crime problems are numerous and diverse, most important being cargo theft, smuggling, and cyber crime. Despite the variety, however, the crime problems collapse into three main taxonomic classes when categorized by the way criminals interact with the supply chain: 1) by taking assets out of the supply chain, 2) by introducing unauthorized goods into the supply chain, and 3) by directly attacking the supply chain. Besides, the criminals commonly resort to a range of facilitating crimes to carry out crimes of the main taxonomic classes. The literature synthesis found that the SCS discipline has attracted cross-disciplinary and steadily growing academic interest over the past decade. The synthesis also suggested that although there are no universal optimal rules for the SCS management, there are certain design principles that should be considered when SCS management decisions are made. The case study evidence revealed that postal security management comprises multiple domains, each having distinctive goals and employing different security solutions. Except for the airmail domain, the number and stringency of existing postal security controls seem low, though proportional to the current terrorist and crime threats. Application of the design principles into the case study context identified a set of promising concepts for improving the postal security management. [...

Transnational Threats to Maritime Systems and Seaport Security

An assessment of a 16-year period since the 9/11 attacks indicated that more than 14,000 security breaches in which security measures at seaports were circumvented due to vulnerabilities occurred and more than 24,000 suspicious activity reports were made. The susceptibility of United States’ seaports to groups engaged in criminal activities, including drug trafficking, cargo theft, and smuggling of contraband and people undermines security practices and renders the nation vulnerable to acts of terrorism. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore seaport security measures to identify and understand internal and external factors that may impact protection practices at U.S. seaports, including those that inadvertently contribute to unauthorized access to restricted facilities and cargo. von Bertalanffy’s general systems theory was used to conceptualize and analyze seaports as complex systems, comprised of independent subsystems working together. Data for the study were collected through Zoom audio recorded interviews conducted with 10 security officials from seaports in the United States. These data were subjected to open and thematic coding, followed by rigorous qualitative analysis and interpretation. Collaboration was identified as a critical element to accomplishing security objectives, some SSOs described a lack of prioritization of security, lack of awareness and understanding of transnational threats as being major risk factors to the security culture. Findings from this study may be used for positive social change by local, state, and federal policy makers, law enforcement executives, industry leaders, academic scholars, and the public to cultivate a contemporary understanding of transnational threats to maritime systems

SHOULD THE GOVERNMENT OF BELIZE CONSIDER USING EMERGING TECHNOLOGY AS A BETTER WAY OF MANAGING ITS BORDER?

As the world evolves and becomes more complex, border protection has become increasingly crucial for the safety of a nation. Belize’s investment in border security has continuously been a topic of interest since its independence in 1981. This thesis investigates whether the use of emerging technology will assist the government of Belize in creating a better method of managing security at its border. It found that countries using the technology might have advantages countering transnational criminal organizations and managing their borders. Using biometrics and sensors (ground and aerial) to detect and deter cross-border illegalities on Belize’s western border might help to control that border. It is recommended that Belize do further research and analysis into the use of emerging border technology and plan and prepare to implement the technology.Major, ArmyApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

Arriving Somewhere, Not Here: Exploring and Mapping the Relationship between Border Enforcement and Migration by Boat in the Central Mediterranean Sea, 2006 to 2015

The European Union (EU) implemented a maritime interdiction network using search and rescue which interdicted at least 462,813 “illegal migrants” in the Central Mediterranean Sea between 2006 and 2015. This involved 15 discrete, militarised and semi-secret maritime interdiction operations (MIOs) at a minimum cost of 126.9 million 2014 Euros. In this dissertation, I will explore and map these operations and their geographies between 2006 and 2015. First, and based on the given existence of the European Patrols Network, I examine how this network came into being in the first place. This serves to show that the EU purposely created regular maritime interdiction operations using search and rescue to interdict migrants by 2006. This approach also justifies and underpins my subsequent analyses of their histories, functions and outcomes, all of which depend on the network having two specific properties. First: that the EPN was a system intentionally designed to internalise migrants and boats as external objects of security via legal inclusion in order to exclude them. Second: that the main mechanism for this process of what I call internalisation was search and rescue. Second, and based on the establishment of these two properties of the EPN, I examine and explore these operations in order to describe them for the first time. I demonstrate the existence of these operations, their inner workings and their basic empirical outcomes. I then proceed to statistically show that search and rescue was empirically vital to their interdiction practises over time. I subsequently display that search and rescue was also critical to spatial externalisation, or the outward movement of border enforcement to manage international migration. These analyses demonstrate that search and rescue was indeed the primary spatial and legal tool of interdiction in the Central Mediterranean Sea between 2006 and 2015. Last, and based on the empirical demonstration of the relevance of search and rescue, I put these maritime interdiction operations to unprecedented statistical testing to determine whether they were effective at stopping current or future migration. This enables analysis of whether social theories assuming or arguing for the (lack of) effectiveness of such operations have empirical support, something yet to be performed in past research

Arriving Somewhere, Not Here: Exploring and Mapping the Relationship between Border Enforcement and Migration by Boat in the Central Mediterranean Sea, 2006 to 2015

The European Union (EU) implemented a maritime interdiction network using search and rescue which interdicted at least 462,813 “illegal migrants” in the Central Mediterranean Sea between 2006 and 2015. This involved 15 discrete, militarised and semi-secret maritime interdiction operations (MIOs) at a minimum cost of 126.9 million 2014 Euros. In this dissertation, I will explore and map these operations and their geographies between 2006 and 2015. First, and based on the given existence of the European Patrols Network, I examine how this network came into being in the first place. This serves to show that the EU purposely created regular maritime interdiction operations using search and rescue to interdict migrants by 2006. This approach also justifies and underpins my subsequent analyses of their histories, functions and outcomes, all of which depend on the network having two specific properties. First: that the EPN was a system intentionally designed to internalise migrants and boats as external objects of security via legal inclusion in order to exclude them. Second: that the main mechanism for this process of what I call internalisation was search and rescue. Second, and based on the establishment of these two properties of the EPN, I examine and explore these operations in order to describe them for the first time. I demonstrate the existence of these operations, their inner workings and their basic empirical outcomes. I then proceed to statistically show that search and rescue was empirically vital to their interdiction practises over time. I subsequently display that search and rescue was also critical to spatial externalisation, or the outward movement of border enforcement to manage international migration. These analyses demonstrate that search and rescue was indeed the primary spatial and legal tool of interdiction in the Central Mediterranean Sea between 2006 and 2015. Last, and based on the empirical demonstration of the relevance of search and rescue, I put these maritime interdiction operations to unprecedented statistical testing to determine whether they were effective at stopping current or future migration. This enables analysis of whether social theories assuming or arguing for the (lack of) effectiveness of such operations have empirical support, something yet to be performed in past research