Borders and Maritime Security and Port of Entry Screening

A boat moves through the water. The nation’s borders consist of all air, land and maritime boundaries. They include any locations where people or cargo can enter the U.S., including airports, highways and naval ports, and can be located in urban communities or remote rural areas. The Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) works closely with border and immigration officials to understand how technology can help support their missions and overcome challenges.

We strive to develop and transition technical capabilities to strengthen U.S. land border security and safeguard lawful trade and travel by preventing illegal goods and people from crossing our borders or entering our country illegally. These projects consists of technologies, sensors, radars and more that monitor air, ground, and underground – from drones to tunnels. We want to know who and what is crossing our borders.

Our maritime programs and projects are focused technologies employed on the coast and in the water. We work with the U.S. Coast Guard and other maritime response organizations to improve the maritime domain awareness, increasing small vessel interdiction efficiency.

We develop technologies to ensure the integrity of cargo shipments by sea, air and land transportation and to help enhance the end-to-end security of the global supply chain, from the manufacturer of goods to final delivery. This work at our ports of entry helps reduce the risk of smugglers, terrorists, and other bad actors who attempt to manipulate cargo as it moves across various transit modes in the international supply chain.

We work with our international partners to ensure first responders and other stakeholders can communicate, share information and collaborate during cross-border incidents. Through ongoing joint activities with partner countries, we establish interoperability capabilities to overcome challenges arising from the use of disparate communications and information systems and procedures, as well as the lack of interagency agreements. Our work enhances regional and cross border operations and resiliency.

Finally, from developing training programs to help agents screen faster and more efficiently to developing biometrics and other airport screening technology, we hope to one day screen at speed. That is, screening individuals in airports and other ports of entry without requiring them take off their shoes or even open their bags.