Advanced Tech Being Used to Help With Border Crisis

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reportedly is turning to advance technology to help it manage the crisis at the southern border.

Last week, the agency awarded a contract to Virginia-based Pangiam Intermediate Holdings, a leader in facial recognition and advanced biometrics, to develop and implement Anomaly Detection Algorithms (ADA), an artificial intelligence tool that will scan vehicles and cargo crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, Axios reported Tuesday.

According to a news release, Pangiam, in partnership with West Virginia University, will leverage its artificial intelligence, computer vision and machine learning expertise to help aid the CBP’s border and national security missions.

Also last week, the CBP expanded its partnership with New York-based Altana to help prevent fentanyl and other synthetic narcotics and their precursor chemicals from entering the U.S. In May, the CBP awarded a contract to Altana to use its Altana Atlas as a foundational map of the global supply chain to prevent goods produced using forced labor from entering the U.S.

Philadelphia-based Ghost Robotics is working with the Department of Homeland Security to provide robotic dogs to patrol the border. Company CEO Gavin Kenneally told the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability in June that the robotic dogs’ ability to traverse difficult terrain in all weather and extreme temperatures “makes it ideal for environments found along the U.S. southern and northern borders.”

“Given that several hundred migrants die every year near the southern border from drowning or heat-related causes, a thermal camera could be equipped on the robot and used to identify them before it’s too late,” Kenneally said, according to a news release.

The CBP has also installed license-plate readers at checkpoints at or near the border and is using facial recognition systems for passengers arriving on international flights, Axios reported.

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