Showing papers on "Homeland security published in 2016"

Chemical sniffing instrumentation for security applications

Abstract: Border control for homeland security faces major challenges worldwide due to chemical threats from national and/or international terrorism as well as organized crime. A wide range of technologies and systems with threat detection and monitoring capabilities has emerged to identify the chemical footprint associated with these illegal activities. This review paper investigates artificial sniffing technologies used as chemical sensors for point-of-use chemical analysis, especially during border security applications. This article presents an overview of (a) the existing available technologies reported in the scientific literature for threat screening, (b) commercially available, portable (hand-held and stand-off) chemical detection systems, and (c) their underlying functional and operational principles. Emphasis is given to technologies that have been developed for in-field security operations, but laboratory developed techniques are also summarized as emerging technologies. The chemical analytes of interest...

The Labor Supply of Undocumented Immigrants

Abstract: The Department of Homeland Security estimates that 11.4 million undocumented persons reside in the United States. Congress and President Obama are considering a number of proposals to regularize the status of the undocumented population and provide a “path to citizenship.” Any future change in the immigration status of this group is bound to have significant effects on the labor market, on the number of persons that qualify for various government-provided benefits, on the timing of retirement, on the size of the population receiving Social Security benefits, and on the funding of almost all of these government programs. This paper provides a comprehensive empirical study of the labor supply behavior of undocumented immigrants in the United States. Using newly developed methods that attempt to identify undocumented status for foreign-born persons sampled in the Current Population Surveys, the empirical analysis documents a number of findings, including the fact that the work propensity of undocumented men is much larger than that of other groups in the population; that this gap has grown over the past two decades; and that the labor supply elasticity of undocumented men is very close to zero, suggesting that their labor supply is almost perfectly inelastic.

The rugged border: Surveillance, policing and the dynamic materiality of the US/Mexico frontier:

Abstract: This paper explores US Department of Homeland Security surveillance programs in the United States/Mexico borderlands, with an emphasis on the quotidian role of a dynamic more-than-human landscape i...

Beyond walls : re-inventing the Canada-United States borderlands

Abstract: Contents: Foreword Preface The Canada-United States borderlands in the 21st century Boundaries, borders and borderlands: Borderlands theory in the era of globalization A retrospective on the Canada-US borderlands Borderland regions and transnational communities Trade in an era of heightened security: sustaining the prosperity partnership Homeland security and emergency preparedness Passport compliance Environment Arctic boundaries and Northern borderlands Borderlands culture Index.

Is There Still a Terrorist Threat?: The Myth of the Omnipresent Enemy

Abstract: For the past five years, Americans have been regularly regaled with dire predictions of another major al Qaeda attack in the United States. In 2003, a group of 200 senior government officials and business executives, many of them specialists in security and terrorism, pronounced it likely that a terrorist strike more devastating than 9/u-possibly involving weapons of mass destruction-would occur before the end of 2004. In May 2004, Attorney GeneralJohn Ashcroft warned that al Qaeda could "hit hard" in the next few months and said that 90 percent of the arrangements for an at tack on U.S. soil were complete. That fall, Newsweek reported that it was "practically an article of faith among counterterrorism officials" that al Qaeda would strike in the run-up to the November 2004 election. When that "October surprise" failed to materialize, the focus shifted: a taped encyc lical from Osama bin Laden, it was said, demonstrated that he was too weak to at tack before the election but was marshalling his resources to do so months after it. On the first page of its founding man ifesto, the massively funded Department of Homeland Security intones, "Today's terrorists can strike at any place, at any time, and with virtually any weapon." But if it is so easy to pull off an attack and if terrorists are so demonically compe tent, why have they not done it? Why have they not been sniping at people in shopping centers, collapsing tunnels, poisoning the food supply, cutting electrical lines, derailing trains, blowing up oil pipelines, causing massive traffic jams, or exploiting the countless other vulnerabilities that, according to security experts, could so easily be exploited? One reasonable explanation is that almost no terrorists exist in the United States and few have the means or the inclination to strike from abroad. But this explanation is rarely offered.

The power of crowdsourcing in disaster response operations

Abstract: A case study was conducted using the 2012 and 2013 Colorado wildfires and the 2010 Haitian earthquake. Academics from universities that are part of the Department of Homeland Security Centers of Excellence and senior leaders within the Colorado Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management were interviewed about the use of crowdsourcing during disaster operations. The resultant data was analyzed and the themes of control, verification, and usage emerged as key components of successful crowdsourcing operations. The study revealed that in today's society, we are globally connected through the Internet such that social media and disaster managers in all countries can benefit from the use of crowdsourcing.

Examining signals of trust in criminal markets online

Abstract: Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate, Cyber Security Division (DHSSandT/ CSD) Broad Agency Announcement 11.02, the Government of Australia and SPAWAR Systems Center Pacific [N66001-13-C-0131]; National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, US Department of Justice [2010-IJ-CX-1676, 2010]

All Terrorism Is Local: Resources, Nested Institutions, and Governance for Urban Homeland Security in the

Abstract: This article examines the conditions under which local jurisdictions make effective use of US homeland security resources It analyzes how resources, institutional context, and governance influence local performance on one homeland security policy dimension?communications interoperability Governance maturity, nested institutions, and the existence of formal rules are key variables affecting the relationship between resources and performance at the local level Cities with advanced, multilevel, and formal governance arrangements are more effective at using Urban Area Security Initiative funds to improve their interoperability performance But current policy approaches slight corresponding demands for shared leadership and cross-sector collaborations

The Rise of Dark Americana: Depicting the “War on Terror” On-Screen

Abstract: In the wake of the 9/11 attacks the American film industry took a while to react to the Islamist threat at home and abroad. From 2005, however, Hollywood responded to the threat to the homeland and the War on Terror “over there” in Iraq and Afghanistan in a variety of ways. This article examines the nature of that response and whether it evinces, as critics allege, that the American film industry reflects and shapes a capitalist and imperialist agenda. More particularly, by evaluating the cinematic treatment of both the Iraq war and the problem of surveillance, rendition, and homeland security, the analysis explores what this distinctive on-screen genre tells about how the U.S. cultural mainstream has dealt with the challenge global jihadism poses to American values. The analysis suggests that post-9/11 movie making, while sometimes bleak and often cliched, is cognizant of the gray area morality inherent in fighting the “War on Terror,” and is still thus able to offer some possibilities for sophisticated ...

They Protect Our Homeland but Neglect Our Community Homeland Security Overemphasis, Legitimacy, and Public Cooperation in Israel

Abstract: Objectives:Terrorism is becoming a priority among police agencies in many Western democracies. Scholars argue that increasing homeland security responsibilities can erode police–community relations, in that people perceive the police as neglecting local crime problems for homeland security concerns.Methods:Using Israel as a case study, we evaluate, through path analyses, whether Israeli Jews who perceive that the Israeli National Police (INP) values homeland security more than its crime responsibilities have lower evaluations of police legitimacy and, in turn, are less willing to cooperate with the police.Results:The findings demonstrate that those who believe the INP neglects its crime responsibilities for homeland security view the police as less legitimate, and lower evaluations of police legitimacy decrease willingness to cooperate. The overall indirect effect of perceived neglect on cooperation is not significant.Conclusions:Based on the findings, it is clear that perceptions of what the police ought...

Cyber workforce development using a behavioral cybersecurity paradigm

Abstract: This paper contributes to the ongoing efforts in the cybersecurity community to strengthen cyber workforce development by providing an overview of key gaps and proposing practical education strategies. Leveraging documented incidents from defense, industry, and academia and the rest of the United States government, we identify emerging cyber-education opportunities highlighting human-centric elements using a gap analysis approach. We closely examine the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education’s (NICE) National Cybersecurity Workforce Framework (NCWF) as well as the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) National Initiative for Cybersecurity Careers and Studies (NICCS) educational framework. These documents provide a foundation for current and future research with cybersecurity workforce development. Next, the paper outlines a pilot education program launched at the University of Central Florida (UCF), designed to address the unique challenges of the human dimension in cybersecurity. The purpose of highlighting this pilot program is to provide an example of human-centric cyber-educational curriculum. The present paper offers a launching point for further discussion about the human side of cybersecurity, closing with considerations of the “lessons learned” from early responses to the UCF program from the program’s inaugural student cohort.

Deaths During Undocumented Migration: Trends and Policy Implications in the New Era of Homeland security

Abstract: The Center for Immigration Research at the University of Houston has been conducting an ongoing study of deaths of undocumented migrants along the southwestern border since 1995 through fieldwork and quanti tative research (Eschbach et al., 1999; Eschbach, Hagan and Rodriguez 2001). The fieldwork has involved interviews with Border Patrol agents, medical examiners, funeral directors, local law enforcement agents,

Using Heart Rate Variability to Assess Operator Mental Workload in a Command and Control Simulation of Multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Abstract: Unmanned systems will play an increased role in the future beyond military application including but not limited to: search and rescue, border patrol, homeland security, and natural disaster relief...

Eliminate the Army and Air Force Reserves: Building a Robust National Guard to Meet 21st Century Operational Challenges

Abstract: : Continuing evolution of the United States reserve military forces contributes to a secure nation. The Army and Air Force are unique, each maintaining dual reserves, an Army National Guard and Army Reserve, and the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve, respectively. With sequestration and dwindling budgets, it is imperative the Department of Defense reassess force structure and identify efficiencies. The causative factors for the creation and maintenance of dual reserve components within a Service no longer exist. Emphasis on homeland security missions and the recent empowerment of the National Guard have set the conditions for continued reserve component evolution. This paper recommends dissolving the Army Reserve and Air Force Reserve and merging their personnel and assets into the National Guard to achieve enhanced homeland defense capabilities with no additional expenditures or degradation of federal accessibility to reserve forces.

Neutron Multiplicity Counting: Credible Regions for Reconstruction Parameters

Abstract: From nuclear materials accountability to homeland security, the need for improved nuclear material detection, assay, and authentication has grown over the past decades. Starting in the 1940s, neutr...

Neoliberalism, the homeland security state, and the authoritarian turn

Abstract: This article interrogates the writings of Milton Friedman and Samuel Huntington to theorize the cultural and ideological processes that gave rise to the homeland security state, a complex and integral configuration of the modern capitalist state that has come to police migrants in multiple realms. Though I discuss some of the major policies and institutional shifts that were central to the forging of the homeland security state from the 1980s to the early twenty-first century, I argue that such policies could not be separated from the authoritarian turn in civil society; that is a cultural and ideological tendency to support the use of violence and repression to deal with dissent and social problems writ large. I also argue that the authoritarian turn should be viewed as the civil society-based cultural and ideological counterpart of “authoritarian statism,” a concept developed by the Greek political theorist Nicos Poulantzas to characterize a repressive form of governance that can exist within the legal framework of a constitutional democracy. The article concludes with some notes about what the authoritarian turn and statism means for the migrant rights movement and parallel social movements in light of President Obama’s Deferred Action for Parental Accountability.

Empowering Pakistan's Civil Society to Counter Violent Extremism

Abstract: IntroductionPakistan is among the most strategically important countries for the United States because of its nuclear capabilities, geographic location, and its position as a frontline state in the battle against global extremism. Since 9/11, the United States has invested more than $30 billion in civilian and military assistance to Pakistan.1 However, Pakistan still remains a base for numerous U.S.-designated terrorist groups, and the threat of violent extremism has continued to increase over the last decade.Radical ideologies continue to gain traction in Pakistan, and the risk to civilians, government institutions, and aid organizations is growing in spite of the Pakistani military's counter-extremism and deradicalization programs. According to intelligence reports, between 2001 and March 2013, 49,000 Pakistanis died at the hands of the Taliban and other militant groups.2 The situation has particularly deteriorated within the past four years, with an incr ease in ethnic and sectarian violence3 and numer ous attacks on ma jor cultural and religious sites resulting in the deaths of scores of civilians.4The government of Pakistan (GoP) is unable to effectively counter violent extremism (CVE) because of its competing national security priorities and economic and energy crises. As a result, Pakistan's civil society has had to take a lead in peacebuilding and CVE initiatives.5 While many civil society CVE programs are effective at the grassroots level, civil society organizations (CSOs) must overcome numerous challenges to become more sustainable and replicable. The United States and the int ernational community must adopt a more systematic and integrated regional approach to empowering Pakistan's civil society to specifically address these issues.It is more urgent than ever to support Pakistan's civil society in its peacebuilding efforts as the United States reduces its presence in Afghanistan. Since 2001, the United States has made considerable progress in establishing r ela tionships wit h Pakistan's civil society t o i mpl ement programs that specifically address drivers of violent extremism. This paper aims to equip policymakers with the tools to expand such efforts and develop a sophisticated strategy for the distribution, allocation, and implementation of assistance to Pakistan to reduce the threat of international terrorism. This CVE strategy can also ser ve as a model for stabilizing other at-risk Muslim ma jority countries such as Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, and Egypt.First, this paper will explore Pakistan's civil society-led CVE programs and assess U.S. government efforts to support these initiatives since 2001. The report will then consider challenges to civil society-focused CVE work in Pakistan, including institutional obstacles and capacity limitations. Recommendations are addressed primarily t oward U.S. policymakers and CVE program implementation agencies, as well as their partners in the diaspora community and in Pakistan.6Defining "CVE"CVE is a broad-ranging term that describes initiatives to reduce the spread of violent extremist ideologies espoused by al-Qa'ida and similar terrorist networks.7 The Obama Administration used the phrase in 2011 with the release of its policy paper, "Empowering Local Partners to Prevent Violent Extremism in the United States" and the subsequent release of its Strategic Implementation Plan. Senior policyma kers from the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Department of Justice (DOJ) and the State Department acknowledge that protecting our nation from foreign and domestic violent extremism is a top national security priority. Accordingly, significant resources and political capital have been dedicated to advancing the CVE agenda.The phenomenon of extremism in Pakistan is highly complex and multilayered. While this report primarily addresses Taliban and al-Qa'ida related violent extremism, radicalization may result from a multitude of "push" and "pull" factors such as poverty, ethnic or sectarian dis cord, political grievances, and extremist ideologies. …

Interior Immigration Enforcement: Criminal Alien Programs

Abstract: This report describes four programs operated by the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to identify and remove criminal and other removable aliens.

Constructing mexican immigrant women as a threat to american families

Abstract: Mexican immigrant mothers and their children are under attack by anti-immigration discourse that draws heavily from Homeland Security rhetoric and immigration law enforcement This study examines an anti-immigration group, Mothers Against Illegal Aliens (MALA), that positions itself from the standpoint of mothers who are U.S. citizens. State and federal legislation and immigration law enforcement provide the foundation for MAIA's anti-immigrant discourse against Mexican immigrant women by drawing from racially-coded language and depictions by incorporating Homeland Security discourse and law enforcement practices. Four major themes used to construct unauthorized Mexican immigrant mothers as unfit are: the inability to raise loyal U.S. citizens; reproduction is used as an opportunistic strategy to gain benefits; the U.S. born children of Mexican immigrant receiving benefits has negative impacts on the children of mothers who are U.S. citizens; and the U.S. born children of these mothers threaten the political dominance of white citizens.

Rediscovering Defense Policy: A Public Policy Call to Arms

Abstract: Since 9/11, policy scholars have made significant inroads with tremendous insights into U.S. homeland security policy, especially in the areas of counterterrorism and disaster relief. But as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan raged on, the public policy field largely ceded questions of traditional defense policy to international relations and security scholars. This was a mistake. The time has come for policy scholars to rediscover defense policy and rejoin America's national security conversation. With defense spending in decline, the All-Volunteer Force in transition, and emerging threats on the rise, research on defense budgeting and management, military social policy, and cyber bureaucracy are all ripe for scholarly examination. This research note reviews the latest work in the field, reinvigorates national security research agendas for the twenty-first century, and explores several ideas for the way ahead in defense policy scholarship.

Addressing Critical Industrial Control System Cyber Security Concerns via High Fidelity Simulation

Abstract: This paper outlines a set of 10 cyber security concerns associated with Industrial Control Systems (ICS). The concerns address software and hardware development, implementation, and maintenance practices, supply chain assurance, the need for cyber forensics in ICS, a lack of awareness and training, and finally, a need for test beds which can be used to address the first 9 cited concerns. The concerns documented in this paper were developed based on the authors' combined experience conducting research in this field for the US Department of Homeland Security, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Defense. The second half of this paper documents a virtual test bed platform which is offered as a tool to address the concerns listed in the first half of the paper. The paper discusses various types of test beds proposed in literature for ICS research, provides an overview of the virtual test bed platform developed by the authors, and lists future works required to extend the existing test beds to serve as a development platform.

SAPE: a system for Situation-Aware Public Security Evaluation

Abstract: Public security events are occurring all over the world, bringing threat to personal and property safety, and homeland security. It is vital to construct an effective model to evaluate and predict the public security. In this work, we establish a Situation-Aware Public Security Evaluation (SAPE) platform. Based on conventional Recurrent Neural Networks (RNN), we develop a new variant for temporal contexts in public security event datasets. This model can achieve better performance than the compared state-of-the-art methods. SAPE has two demonstrations, i.e., global public security evaluation and China public security evaluation. In the global part, based on Global Terrorism Database from UMD, for each country, SAPE can predict risk level and top-n potential terrorist organizations which might attack the country. Users can also view the actual attacking organizations and predicted results. For each province in China, SAPE can predict the risk level and the probability scores of different types of events in the next month. Users can also view the actual numbers of events and predicted risk levels of the past one year.

The Federal Cybersecurity Workforce: Background and Congressional Oversight Issues for the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security

Abstract: This report examines congressional oversight of two strategies undertaken by Congress and the executive branch to strengthen the federal cybersecurity workforce: initiatives to define and identify the federal cybersecurity workforce, and hiring and pay flexibilities applicable to cybersecurity positions at the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Cybersecurity Investment Guidance: Extensions of the Gordon and Loeb Model

Abstract: Extensions of the Gordon-Loeb [1] and the Gordon-Loeb-Lucyshyn-Zhou [2] models are presented based on mathematical equivalency with a generalized homeland security model. The extensions include limitations on changes in the probability of attack, simultaneous effects on probability and loss, diversion of attack, and shared non-information defenses. Legal cases are then investigated to assess approximate magnitudes of external effects and the extent they are internalized by the legal system.

Enabling homeland security missions with in-space 3D printing

Abstract: This paper considers the utility of space-based 3D printing for homeland security applications, with needs ranging from the collection of data to facilitate the detection of occurrences ranging from prospective acts of terrorism, to invasion, to natural disasters. This paper presents and evaluates multiple prospective homeland security applications for an in-space 3D printing technology. The technology’s efficacy for the fabrication, refurbishment and repair of orbital craft on-demand as well as its utility as part of a mothership for a sensor net constellation are considered.

No nation is home alone: understanding the international dimension of homeland security through global transportation security programs

Abstract: : Terrorist actors focus on the global transportation system to introduce threats and target attacks. As the lead department for securing the transportation system into the United States, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) works both domestically and internationally to implement programs and foreign assistance activities to secure the global transportation network. This thesis examines DHS international role by analyzing programs and policies implemented by its three largest global transportation agencies: the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency, the Transportation Security Administration, and the U.S. Coast Guard. Due to the breadth of DHS programs and activities, their stated goals and objectives, and their legal mandates, this thesis determines that a U.S. foreign assistance framework provides minimal insight into DHS international footprint. Instead, this research developed a simple model for understanding the primary components of DHS international mission space and identified operations, policy, outreach and engagement, and training and technical assistance as core concepts in DHS international mission. Using this model, DHS can pursue the additional recommendations developed in this thesisapplying systems theory as a basis for an international transportation security strategy as well as pursuing direct funding for its international transportation programs and activities as a fully integrated departmentwithin the traditional U.S. foreign policy and national security institutions

Terrorism-Related Loss of Citizenship - A Policy Review

Abstract: : Since September 11, 2001, a collection of bills have been submitted to Congress proposing to amend section 349 of the Immigration and Nationality Act to provide that an individual may lose United States citizenship for joining a terrorist organization, or engaging in or supporting terrorism. Although several of our allies, including the U.K., Australia, and France, have considered and in some instances passed similar legislation during the same period, Congress has not given these proposals serious consideration. This thesis provides a policy analysis, assessing the viability of terrorism-related loss of citizenship under U.S. law. Following a review of the history of acquisition and loss of citizenship in the United States, including key laws and precedent decisions, and a comparative analysis of legislation considered and either passed or rejected by the U.K., Australia, and France, it provides a critical review of terrorism-related loss of citizenship bills submitted to Congress since 9/11. This thesis demonstrates that viable terrorism-related loss of citizenship legislation may be possible, but that bills submitted to date have been largely symbolic, rather than serious, efforts. This thesis provides drafting recommendations to legislators, but raises questions about the practical utility and necessity of such laws.

Policing Sex, Policing Immigrants: What Crimmigration's Past Can Tell Us About Its Present and Its Future

Abstract: The flow of information from local police to federal immigration officials forms a central element of the contemporary phenomenon known as “crimmigration” — the convergence of immigration enforcement and criminal law enforcement. This Essay provides the first historical account of the early roots of this information flow and a new perspective on its contemporary significance.Previous scholarship locates crimmigration’s origins in the 1980s and ’90s. Drawing on extensive archival research on day-to-day interactions between local police and federal immigration officials, this Essay explores a lost chapter in the development of crimmigration: the pipeline that brought men arrested by vice squads in gay cruising areas into the deportation system in the 1950s and ’60s. This history demonstrates that the contemporary crimmigration system is best understood not as the merging of two enforcement systems that were formerly separate, but rather as the product of shifts within both policing and the deportation systems that have rendered many more people vulnerable to the intersection of the two. Drawing parallels between the use of vice squad arrest records by the Immigration and Naturalization Service in the 1950s and the use of police data by the Department of Homeland Security today, this Essay argues that a symbiotic relationship has developed in recent years between “broken windows” policing and the deportation system. The deportation system has come to depend on the existence of an expansive criminal justice system that subjects low-income communities of color to regular monitoring through frequent stops and arrests for minor offenses. At the same time, programs that promote police-immigration cooperation have themselves become drivers of over-policing.