Boeing wins border monitoring contract

Homeland Security Department picked the Boeing Company among several others to provide new high-tech ways to catch illegal immigrants trying to cross U.S. land borders, as part of the government's Secure Border Initiative (SBI). The contract is valued at $80 million instead of the $2 billion estimate, initially given for the six-year deal.

Boeing had to compete with several major defense companies to win this contract. But the Chicago-based company’s proposal was found to be the most satisfactory as it focused on a network of 1,800 high-tech towers, equipped with cameras and motion detectors that could feed live information to Border Patrol agents while other companies' plans relied greatly on flying drones to guard the border.

Homeland Security Department spokesman Jarrod Agen refused to comment. "Legally we are restricted from discussing details of the contract until the award is officially announced," he said on Wednesday.

The board will vote on bills to direct the department to build a two-layer fence about 700-miles long, between Mexico and the United States, to cover about one-third of the shared border. The proposal has been passed by the house. Such a fence could require a smaller number of the high-tech measures that Boeing would provide.

Since a major part of that border (about two-third) would remain unfenced and also no large-scale fence along the Canadian border is being planned, it would be obligatory to continue the monitoring of thousands of miles by alternative methods.

The illegal immigration problem has been called by lawmakers to be a national security issue and the contract given to Boeing is the government's latest attempt to use advanced technology to solve it.

Merrill Lynch analyst Ronald Epstein called it a meaningful win for Boeing in a growing space, helping to lighten concerns of slowing defense spending. "Boeing's performance on the SBI contract could position it as a prime beneficiary in the growing homeland security space," Epstein wrote in a research note.