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DHS Special Report | Who's Who at the Border
Targeting center system applies modeling technology to data culled from multiple agencies
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In this Special Report
DHS: Pockets of Progress
Sidebar
Cargo: the other half of the secure-border equation
Rod MacDonald, assistant commissioner of Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Information Technology, is the point man for the Automated Commercial Environment, the computerized system that checks cargo coming into the country at both land and sea ports.
Working both with U.S. Visit and National Targeting Center officials, ACE collects electronic cargo data and passes it on to appropriate officers in the field for further analysis.
“Every bit of information we can get in advance all helps us pinpoint where there might be a threat,” MacDonald said.
Although ACE has been in existence since 2000, the program morphed considerably in late 2003 with the ACE Secure Data Portal, an online one-stop shop to CBP systems, including the Border Release Advanced Screening and Selectivity System, the Pre-arrival Processing System, and the Free and Secure Trade system. It also contains monthly periodic payment and statement features that streamline accounting and report processing for importers and government officials.
ACE is continuing to roll out its electronic manifest feature for trucks, an application that lets highway shippers file their manifests prior to a truck’s arrival at a border point, expediting the processing of their cargo.
Although e-Manifest just launched this past December, MacDonald said CBP likely will mandate the system later this year.
“We can’t stop every truck and open every container, but this gives us a better idea of what’s coming,” he said.
Like U.S. Visit, ACE’s rollout has not been totally smooth. CBP delayed its rollout last year because of security add-ons that contributed to escalating costs. In fact, according to the Government Accountability Office, CBP in April 2005 raised its expected budget to $3.1 billion from $1.3 billion in 2001. It also was expected to be fully completed in 2006, but CBP has pushed that date back to 2010.
And in a report released late last month, the audit agency said that although ACE has made progress, DHS has been slow to address management issues that continue to plague the program.
CBP also has set unrealistic performance goals that have hampered ACE’s success, GAO said. “For example, in fiscal year 2005, the program set a target that 11 percent of all Customs and Border Protection employees would use ACE,” auditors said. “However, this target does not reflect the fact that many CBP employees will never use the system.”
Despite these issues, DHS is counting on ACE to complement U.S. Visit and other screening and targeting programs.
—Rob Thormeyer
Drawing on information from multiple Homeland Security Department agencies— data such as the car’s make, model, license plate, location and time of day— the software predicts whether the car is likely to contain undocumented persons or counterfeit goods hidden in the trunk.
The information is quickly processed and presented to the border guard, who can then determine—before the car reaches the gate—whether to take further action based on the analysis.
This predictive modeling technology, which DHS’ Customs and Border Protection’s National Targeting Center is still rolling out, can lead to the arrest of undocumented persons and seizure of illegal goods at land borders. Officials declined to discuss specifics about the modeling technology.
Casting a wide net
DHS officials say the scenario is one of
many examples of how the agency, despite
its struggles, has quietly put together a
wide-reaching net of screening and targeting
programs, working not only within its
several internal organizations—such as
CBP, the Coast Guard and Citizenship and
Immigration Services—but with other
agencies such as the Justice and State departments.
Through internal programs such as the targeting center, the Automated Commercial Environment, and the U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator System, and intergovernmental initiatives such as Justice’s Terrorist Screening Center, DHS is breaking down the stovepipes of its agencies, the officials said. And it is also helping remove long-standing bureaucratic silos that have, in the past, prevented intelligence and security agencies from communicating.
“We’ve made unbelievable strides ... and our ability to team with other agencies has really grown exponentially,” said Charles Bartoldus, executive director of national targeting and screening for CBP.
Scott Hastings, CIO of U.S. Visit, agreed: “We are seeing very large initiatives taking big chunks out of the connect-the-dot problem.”
For example, two DHS flagship programs— U.S. Visit and ACE—operate on the same network and share the same infrastructure and routers. A separate initiative, the Terrorist Screening Center, houses employees from several different agencies. And some officials, such as Bartoldus, serve on steering committees for other projects. In Bartoldus’ case, he is a member of ACE’s board of directors.
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