What will it take to stop drugs and criminals from coming across America’s borders? Better technology and more agents, say two members of a House subcommittee who came to the border Monday pitching high-tech inspections of all private cars and commercial trucks at land ports of entry.
The Securing America’s Ports Act calls on the Department of Homeland Security to develop a budget and a timetable to implement non-intrusive inspection (NII) systems at border crossings and to carry out a one-year pilot program. Right now, CBP agents scan only 15 percent of the truck traffic and only 1 percent of the cars coming across the border. The rest are only subject to visual or physical inspections.
Bill cosponsors Xochitl Torres-Small, D-New Mexico, and Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, said Congress earlier this year approved $579 million for NII technology, some of which is already being spent on a pilot program in South Texas. More of that money should be spent once the program’s results are analyzed.
