Homeland Security gets moving on border project

A senior Homeland Security Department official said the department issued a solicitation Tuesday for a massive border security contract but also called on Congress to approve legislation for a temporary guest-worker program that would allow millions of migrants to legally work in the United States.

Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Michael Jackson said the Customs and Border Protection division announced its procurement plan for the Secure Border Initiative-Net program. "SBInet is a comprehensive attempt to bring together for the first time ... a package of tools that will comprehensively control the border," Jackson said during a keynote speech at a security summit organized by Equity International.

Under the program, the department is seeking a prime contractor to help develop and integrate technology and infrastructure with personnel along the border. SBInet was announced last fall to replace two previous efforts to gain control of the borders: the Integrated Surveillance Intelligence System and America's Shield Initiative.

ISIS was scrapped in 2004 after government investigators found that technology for it either did not work or was never deployed. The shield initiative replaced ISIS, but the department now says SBInet is a better, more comprehensive program.

Jackson said SBInet will be a multi-year program, but its cost will depend on industry proposals in response to the solicitation. He declined to provide an estimate, saying only that the department plans to reserve "a very substantial amount of money" for the program in its fiscal 2007 budget.

Jackson also urged Congress to pass a temporary guest-worker program for millions of migrants, saying it will serve as a "release valve" to help direct willing workers to willing employers.

Hundreds of thousands of people rallied in cities across the country Monday in favor of such a program. The fate of legislation remains unclear, however, as Congress is divided on the issue and in recess until April 24.

The House passed a bill last December that does not include such a program. Negotiations in the Senate over legislation broke down at the end of last week.

Jackson said Homeland Security officials are trying to persuade lawmakers to approve a program. "We're actively engaged with Congress in helping them understand what a temporary worker program can do and how we can structure it to be able succeed administratively," he said.

He acknowledged that the department cannot move ahead with firm plans for a guest-worker program without legislation but said steps are being taken in anticipation of a bill.

At Homeland Security "we're certainly doing a lot of planning about how you would manage the intake, how you would manage the security background investigations for potential applicants, how we would interface with foreign governments that needed to have a link with us as we manage this process, how this intersects with our [incumbent systems, and] what we would need to do by way of workforce to be able to manage this project."