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10 NEWS www.securitysystemsnews.com AUgUST 2013 SECURITY SYSTEMS NEWS Immigration bill has major security provisions By Leif Kothe WASHINGTON—A major securityfocused amendment to the Senate immigration bill, proposed by a pair of senators one day before the legislation passed 68-32, might have played a critical role in making the overhaul more palatable to several more Senate Republicans. Proposed by Sens. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and John Hoeven, R-N.D., the amendment package would devote Patrol agents, according LEGISLATIVE to news reports. more than $40 billion over the next ten years director ROUNDUP of Marcus Dunn,relations to bolstering security and government ramping up enforcement for the Security Industry on the nation's southern border. Provisions Association, says it's unsurprising that of S. 744—the Border Security, Economic some kind of bipartisan agreement can Opportunity and Immigration Modern- form around security provisions, even ization Act—include adding 700 miles of in a Senate as politically polarized as the fencing and employing 20,000 more Border current one. The security debate has the advantage of being anchored more in technical waters than ideological, unlike the more politically divisive aspects of immigration reform, such as those dealing with paths to citizenship and legalization. "We do not have the emotional piece of the immigration discussion," Dunn told Security Systems News. "Technology either does what it's supposed to do or it doesn't. We're the solution provider, if you want to do this in an organized, blackand-white, blind justice kind of way." The spirit of bipartisan cooperation that defned the Senate vote may not translate so well to the House, where political rifts are even more pronounced. House Speaker John Boehner has reiterated in no uncertain terms that the House plans to do its own immigration bill. While a House bill may be assembled in more of a piecemeal fashion, Dunn said, certain security-related proposals, such as a provision for biometrics cards, are likely to be part of the legislation because they will appeal to lawmakers in both parties—at least among the more moderate ranks. "I think they overthink it," Dunn said, referring to the lawmakers on the political fringes of both parties, who tend to be more wary of the privacy implications for biometrics. "Biometrics could just be a photograph. It could also be a fngerprint, iris scan or blood type, but that's a bit more in-depth." A privacy framework designed by SIA may help allay some of these concerns. If that framework is not a part of House legislation, the association will advocate for its inclusion, according to Dunn, who expects opposition to biometrics to be limited, since they are consistent with the push for stronger border security, something lawmakers on both sides of the aisle support. Dunn added that another cause for optimism, from an industry standpoint, is that both the House and Senate seem to be aware that biometrics could be among the technical solutions to some of the problems plaguing border security. "If we're really trying to fnd out who a person is, [biometric verifcation] is diffcult to thwart," Dunn said. "It's not going to be as common as someone lifting an ID card." An interesting point about the Senate's mammoth, decade-long border security proposal is that, from a research and development standpoint, it may help usher in the next wave of security technology. With $40 billion in the pipeline, the industry may see better video analytics, improved energy efficiency, higher video SENATE see page 11