House Border Security Technology Caucus holds first briefing

The first briefing of the Bipartisan Border Security Technology Caucus took place this week, in conjunction with geospatial analytics company Orbital Insight, to address how best to aid law enforcement agencies in monitoring and collecting data on cross-border migration.

A House-focused collective, the Border Security Technology Caucus was founded this March by U.S. Reps. Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX) and Tony Gonzales (R-TX). Other members include U.S. Reps. Tim Ryan (D-OH) and Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN). Together, they hope to identify upcoming technologies to modernize patrol and tracking along the U.S.-Mexico border.

“Now is the time to implement smart and effective methods to further secure our borders,” Gonzalez, co=chair of the caucus, said. “There is nothing partisan about keeping our men and women in blue and green safe, and there is nothing partisan about securing our border in a cost-efficient and technologically advanced way. I look forward to our continued work that will come from this bi-partisan caucus and the real change we can bring to our border communities.”

Orbital Insight provided the congressmen with a presentation on how geospatial analytics – the company itself analyzes satellite, drone, and similarly produced images’ geolocation data to study human activity and pluck useful insights from it – can help law enforcement agencies to improve data farming on border migration, and better monitor it overall.