DHS describes the ‘border calculus’
The testimony from last week’s hearing on the Secure Border Initiative, which I mentioned in this recent post, is now online on the House Homeland Security Committee website. Looking through the prepared remarks, I found a very interesting chart in the testimony by DHS officials Greg Giddens and Deborah Spero that conceptualizes the DHS strategy for border security in a way that I’ve seen discussed but never illustrated (click picture to enlarge):
The chart essentially provides a framework for deciding what types of resources (e.g. physical infrastructure, technology, border officers) are needed at a particular point along the border, given existing resources, current flows of people, and the geographical realities in that area. The leadership of DHS has talked in the last year about how it is using this type of dynamic model to simulate activity along the border and accordingly make investment decisions, but this is the first time that I’ve seen the concept presented in this format.
