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DHS puts border security on fast track

Contract for ambitious SBI.net initiative to be awarded by Sept. 30

The border is about to be re-engineered.

The Homeland Security Department’s SBI.net program is set to roll out advanced technology between ports of entry and limit, if not put a stop to, illegal entrants. Officials plan to upgrade this complex part of the Secure Border Initiative in a scant eight months—a goal they call ambitious and others call hasty.

SBI.net fits into a comprehensive border control plan that already includes the U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology program. U.S. Visit has rolled out biometric technology at 115 airports, 15 seaports and the secondary inspection areas of 154 land crossing points, and has coordinated dozens of federal databases.

SBI.net will continue the technology rollout to the gaps on the map between the ports of entry. Just as former Homeland Security Department secretary Tom Ridge declared U.S. Visit the hallmark of his tenure, secretary Michael Chertoff has signaled that SBI.net and related border plans he is coordinating with the State Department will be his legacy.

“We have never had a credible plan to enforce the southern border,” DHS deputy secretary Michael P. Jackson said at a recent vendor meeting about plans for SBI.net in Washington.

President George W. Bush referred to the problem in last week’s State of the Union address. “Our nation needs orderly and secure borders,” he said. “To meet this goal, we must have stronger immigration enforcement and border protection.”

DHS has not put a price tag on SBI.net, but market research firm Input of Reston, Va., estimates its potential value at $2 billion.

DHS officials themselves describe the situation along parts of the southern border as “chaotic.” Vendors, congressional staff members and observers in the policy community agree that the administration is under pressure to show results in border control programs before the midterm elections.

But the department so far has released only broad-brush concepts of the technologies it seeks to purchase and is leaving many of the details up to the bidders. DHS plans to issue a statement of objectives to guide vendor teams as they craft comprehensive border technology deployment plans.

DHS officials, who admit they are proceeding on a fast track, said they plan to release a request for proposals in March and award an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract by Sept. 30. The IDIQ approach saddles vendors with significant risks, according to Tom Madden, partner in the Venable LLP law firm in Washington and an expert in federal contract law. He noted that in a statement of objectives acquisition, “the definition of those objectives has to be developed very carefully.”