美国国家公共电台 NPR With Trump's Border Plans, Security And Surveillance Firms Eye Bigger Profits

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RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

There's a whole lot of excitement at this year's Border Security Expo in San Antonio. Here's why - the White House is asking Congress for billions of dollars to fund more federal agents and many miles of a border wall. That could mean big opportunity for the vendors¹ who are peddling² their wares³ to government buyers. NPR's John Burnett has this report.

JOHN BURNETT, BYLINE⁴: The Homeland Security Department is already the largest federal law enforcement agency with the biggest budget, and it may get even bigger. With that in mind, the exhibition hall at the Border Security Expo is packed with vendors, most of them selling the latest high-tech⁵ gadgetry⁶ for surveillance and reconnaissance.

MARK TINKER: My name's Mark Tinker. I'm the CEO of Quantum Technology Sciences, and we sell unattended seismic⁷ acoustic⁸ sensors⁹.

ANDREW FINN: My name is Andrew Finn. I'm with Fraser Optics. Our core competency is handheld gyro-stabilized binoculars¹⁰.

MIKE PINE: Mike Pine, vice¹¹ president of business development for CT Defense¹². And we are here today to promote a mobile command post that's capable of housing up to 33 agents for 20 days off the grid¹³.

BURNETT: So this is like a giant cammo RV.

PINE: Exactly.

BURNETT: So you figure because there's a boom in border security under this president, it's good time to be at this expo.

PINE: Absolutely. We've got another 5,000 agents that are coming on board. The question is how well the Border Patrol deploy¹⁴ these agents to the front lines.

BURNETT: For a reality check, there are certainly bad hombres on the border. But most immigrants who cross illegally are men looking for work in a landscaping crew or Central American mothers with children in tow, asking for asylum¹⁵. Nevertheless, the vendors at the Border Security Expo are loaded for bear. Their booths bristle¹⁶ with military-style tactical gear, the latest police assault weapons, surveillance drones and a strange sci-fi-looking spotlight¹⁷ that you aim like a rifle. It's offered by a Japanese company whose spokesman is Hiro Yazawa.

And what would this do?

HIRO YAZAWA: For the border control, searching people and also this kind of blinking unit used for blinding eyes and...

BURNETT: It could temporarily blind them.

YAZAWA: Exactly, exactly, yeah.

BURNETT: By late Tuesday, the spotlight weapon - priced at $5,000 - had no customers. One of those looking to buy is Gabe Acosta, an assistant chief patrol agent in Laredo, Texas. He's looking at the coolest new law enforcement gear, and so far, his favorite...

GABE ACOSTA: Is a certain night vision optic, which allows you to see color at night versus¹⁸ your standard, you know, green type of screen that you may have. It's like day shift at night.

BURNETT: Walking around the exhibit hall, you realize this is not a conference for wall builders. In fact, Trump's big beautiful wall is not especially popular at the Border Security Expo. Jay Ahern, former acting¹⁹ customs commissioner²⁰, called it, quote, "dumb, physical infrastructure²¹" during his panel at the expo.

JAY AHERN: While the wall gets a lot of play publicly, I think the technology piece will be critically important.

BURNETT: Far from San Antonio, dozens of contractors²² are designing prototypes of a border wall, ranging from 18 to 30 feet high. But here at the Security Expo, current and former Homeland Security officials are looking for a smart border that may depend more on computer screens than steel and concrete. John Burnett, NPR News, San Antonio.