Editor's note: This is the first of a three-part series titled “Reyes the Rainmaker,” focusing on the power and influence of U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes in national security, homeland security, border security, and intelligence operations, how those programs have been integrated into regional economic development efforts, and how Reyes has drawn increasing support from the military contracting sector. In addition, there is a sidebar story to the series, Reyes and the Aerospace Missions Corporation earmark.
The series:
-- Part 1: Building the Paso del Norte security system, from academics to economics
-- Part 2: Contributions and contracts
-- Part 3: Electronics and earmarks on the border
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City boosters commonly describe El Paso as being a border city joined culturally and economically with its larger border twin Ciudad Juarez. Opening the 2009 Border Security Conference on Aug. 10, Diana Natalicio, president of the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), called El Paso “the largest binational metroplex in the world.”
The rising power and influence of Rep. Reyes over the last decade is also turning El Paso del Norte into the home of the country’s new military/homeland security complex. Since Sept. 11, 2001, the emergence of homeland security as a major governmental and industrial focus has played a transformative role in the increased integration of the military, security, and intelligence sectors. This rising integration of defense, homeland security, and intelligence is seen in government, industry, and in the academy.
The foundation of this nascent but clearly emerging complex in the El Paso area is Fort Bliss, the 1.1-million acre Army base on the edge of El Paso that adjoins the White Sands Missile Base and Holloman Air Force Base. Fort Bliss was a big winner in the Pentagon’s Base Closure and Realignment (BRAC 2005) process, with the base expecting a net gain of 27,000 troops by 2013 – for a total of 37,000 troops. According to an estimate by El Paso Regional Economic Development Corporation (REDCO), the base will have a $6.4 billion impact on the area by 2013.
Located on Fort Bliss are three counterterrorism and counternarcotics centers: DHS’ Border Patrol Field Intelligence Center, DEA’s El Paso Intelligence Center, and DOD’s Joint Task Force North.
An array of private contractors, including such giants as Boeing, Raytheon, and Lockheed Martin, are in the El Paso area to manage contracts with the Army and Air Force in the region.
Another infusion of federal dollars in the El Paso region has come from DHS. Immigrant prisons and detention centers (Chaparral and Sierra Blanca) in the area, the construction of the border fence, a surge in Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, and new port-of-entry infrastructure and new Border Patrol facilities, among other border security upgrades, have stimulated the local economy and reshaped the area’s border town image.
Reyes’ Rising Star
Representing the 16th District of Texas in Congress since 1997, Reyes has been a key player in developing El Paso as center for defense, homeland security, and intelligence research and operations. The rising power and influence of Reyes could not be missed at the recent Border Security Conference, where the Reyes was the central figure -– with his manifest close connections to the key government, industry, and academy figures in the city’s growing homeland security complex.
Reyes began developing his homeland security credentials in 1984, when he was named a Border Patrol sector chief. He closed out his Border Patrol career as chief of the El Paso sector, where in 1993 he launched Operation Blockade (later renamed Operation Hold the Line) to halt illegal immigrant flows into the city.
Operation Blockade’s success in impeding most unauthorized immigrant traffic through the city won Reyes great acclaim in El Paso (and nationally), creating a base of support that propelled him into the city’s congressional seat three years later.
Since his 1996 election, Reyes has moved steadily to embellish his homeland security and national security credentials. Although not a supporter of the controversial new border fence, Reyes has advocated an expanded Border Patrol force and the installation of electronic surveillance.
Since his election to Congress in 1996 Reyes has determinedly established his national security credentials. In 2006 he was named chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Committee, and he also is a senior member of the powerful Armed Services Committee.
Reyes is also a member of the newly created subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee. Called the House Appropriations Select Intelligence Oversight Panel the 13-member panel combines the senior members of the House Defense Appropriations Committee and three members, including Chairman Reyes, from the Intelligence Committee. The new committee will match intelligence oversight of the intelligence committee with appropriations authority of the defense appropriations subcommittee, which approves the classified budget for the 16 civilian and military intelligence agencies.
This new position will give Reyes increased ability to influence the intelligence community’s budget and the rapidly rising outsourciing of intelligence operations to private contractors.
Another sign of Reyes’ rising star in national security is his increased ability to direct federal contracts to the El Paso area through congressional earmarks and budget authorizations for homeland security, defense, and intelligence. Rapidly rising campaign contributions from security contractors also point to his new influence and power in security issues and budgeting.
Homeland Security Complex on Display
Reyes' office has been cosponsoring the Border Security Conference with UTEP since 2004. Every year it has attracted an increasingly powerful array of government officials and representatives from the defense, homeland security, and intelligence industries.
At the recent conference, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, Office of National Drug Policy Director R. Gil Kerlikowske, DHS Special Representative for Border Affairs Alan Bersin, and the President’s Assistant for Homeland Security John Brennan gave policy addresses, along with top officials at the Border Patrol, Drug Enforcement Administration, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. [npt conference coverage]
While the latest conference featured the most impressive array of top government officials, previous conferences have been headlined by top Bush administration appointees, including former DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff, former Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell, former CIA Director Michael Hayden, and FBI Director Robert Mueller –- an indicator that Washington, under both Republicans and Democrats, is paying attention to the swelling influence of Silvestre Reyes in intelligence, defense, federal law enforcement, and homeland security matters.
The new blend of military and homeland security industries was evident at UTEP’s conference, whose fiscal sponsors, with the exception of REDCO, represented this emerging military/security industry: SAIC, Raytheon, ManTech, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and CSC. In addition to these sponsors, more than a dozen other industries exhibited their homeland security wares to conference attendees.
The conference also featured speeches about homeland security and intelligence systems by corporate representatives, as well as the exhibition tables of more than a dozen homeland security companies.
At the conference’s luncheon, which featured a counterterrorism/homeland security presentation by the White House’s John Brennan, master of ceremonies Rep. Reyes asked his friend John Thomas, senior vice president of SAIC (which financed the luncheon), to say a few words.
“Whether you agree or disagree with the policies that these officials support, this is a huge opportunity for UTEP and the entire community,” said Reyes, when asked about UTEP’s new role in border security. “By successfully hosting a national conference of this caliber year after year, UTEP is establishing itself as a major academic center where policy and academia intersect to address some of our country’s most pressing problems. I want to continue helping UTEP to further develop these types of opportunities.”
The El Paso Borderplex and UTEP’s New Security Complex
At the 2006 Border Security Conference, cosponsored by UTEP and U.S. Rep. Reyes, UTEP President Diana Natalico introduced Reyes as a “good friend,” and credited Reyes for his visionary role in helping launch the Border Security Conference in 2004 and his key role since 2006 in establishing UTEP’s new defense, homeland security, and intelligence centers.
The four UTEP centers –- National Center for Border Security and Immigration (NCBSI), Center for Defense Systems Research (CDSR), and Intelligence Community Center of Academic Excellence (IC CAE) — underscore the university’s increasing national security focus and its bid, under Natalicio’s tenure, to be recognized as a tier-one research institute.
These four national security centers are funded respectively by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Department of Defense (DOD), and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI).
Natalicio often describes UTEP and El Paso as being members of a binational community integrated by social and economic ties. She notes that 75 percent of UTEP’s student body is Hispanic, including the 10 percent of the student body who commute from Juarez. At same time that the UTEP president paints a crossborder image of UTEP, she is also seeking to bolster the university’s reputation as a hotspot for homeland security, intelligence, and military research and development.
National Security and Border Security Leader
The first time many heard of UTEP’s emerging role as a sponsor of defense research was during an October 2006 visit to UTEP by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson. Sen. Hutchinson and Rep. Reyes had inserted a $1 million earmark in the FY2007 defense appropriations bill for the creation of the Center for Defense Systems Research.
During the senator’s visit to the UTEP campus, President Natalicio said:
“UTEP’s location in the El Paso-Juárez borderplex means that border security and defense are issues of daily relevance to us. We are uniquely positioned to be a leader in border security and defense systems research.”
To spearhead this drive to make the university a border security and national security leader, UTEP has created an Office of Strategic Initiatives. The new office coordinates the research work of CDSR and NCBSI under its mission to promote “homeland security and homeland defense and their relationship to economic development in the Paso del Norte region.”
Ret. Brig. Gen. Jose Riojas was the key figure in the opening of UTEP’s Office of Strategic Initiatives and in the operations of the university’s border security and defense research centers until earlier this year, when he was named by the Obama administration for a high-level position in Veteran Affairs. Before joining UTEP as vice-president for strategic initiatives, Riojas was commander of Joint Task Force North, headquartered at Fort Bliss in El Paso.
The Center for Defense Systems Research has a border security focus. Among the center’s partners are Customs and Border Protection, Electronic Warfare Solutions, Homeland Protection Institute, and the large military contractor SAIC.
CDSR says it “applies cutting-edge research and technologies to near-term, applied, user-level, and multi-use solutions for the Departments of Defense (DoD) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The Center acts as a one-stop shop for DoD, DHS and university collaborations.”
CDSR’s research projects involving private- and public-sector partners include: Miniaturized 3-D Embedded Electronics & Sensor Integration, Visual Sensing & Image Dissemination System for Pervasive Monitoring, and Robust Face Recognition from Low-Resolution Surveillance Images.
Reyes and Hutchinson have directed a total of $3.6 million to CDSR in the last four defense-appropriations bills, including a $1 million earmark for FY 2010.
Fostering a “Homeland Security Culture”
Working in close coordination with CDSR is UTEP’s new National Center for Border Security and Immigration, which was created in 2008 by a $6-million grant from DHS. The University of Arizona is UTEP’s partner in the new homeland security research center.
NCBSI was launched at UTEP’s 2005 Border Security Conference. NCBSI aims to:
“Stimulate, coordinate, leverage, and utilize the unique intellectual capital in the academic community to address current and future homeland security challenges, and educate and inspire the next generation homeland security workforce.” Additionally, the DHS-sponsored and financed center will “foster a homeland security culture within the academic community through research and educational programs.”
NCBSI , according to DHS, is “developing technologies, tools, and advanced methods to balance immigration and commerce with effective border security, as well as assess threats and vulnerabilities, improve surveillance and screening, analyze immigration trends, and enhance policy and law enforcement efforts.”
Even before the March 2003 opening of the DHS plans were underway to involve universities in homeland security. Congress, as part of the Homeland Security Act of 2002, authorized the new department to “designate a university-based system for several university-based centers for homeland security.”
Today, there is a network of universities that receives DHS funding to collaborate with the government to, as the act stipulated, “enhance the Nation’s homeland security.” It’s a mutually beneficial arrangement, with universities benefiting from large grants from a rapidly expanding part of the federal government and with the government benefiting from the sponsored research of hundreds of university scholars.
The new DHS-academy condominium includes an expanding national network of “centers of excellence.” Today, there are 13 DHS university-based centers of excellence. Through DHS’s Science & Technology Directorate and the department’s Office of University Programs, DHS aims “to leverage the independent thinking and ground-breaking capabilities of the Nation's colleges and universities” with its centers of excellence.
The newest DHS university research institute is the Center of Excellence in Command, Control and Interoperability (C2I), which is led by Purdue University and Rutgers University. According to DHS, this center will “create the scientific basis and enduring technologies needed to analyze massive amounts of information from multiple sources to more reliably detect threats to the security of the nation and its infrastructures, and to the health and welfare of its populace.”
There has been no overall evaluation of how this DHS-academy cooperative venture -– now six years old -– has contributed to improving homeland security. Since the creation of DHS there have been rising questions and concerns by DHS’ own inspector general and by congressional oversight committees about departmental operations, including issues of waste, over-reliance on private contractors, and widespread abuses and excesses in immigration enforcement and border control.
Given the failures and controversies surrounding the department’s Secure Border Initiative -– including the border fence and high-tech surveillance systems (“virtual fence”) -– there is good cause to question the involvement of universities in the support and development of DHS border security infrastructure and strategies. The huge sums of DHS funds flowing to private contractors such as Boeing also raise questions about the degree to which research and education about border issues is shaped by monetary incentives.
Also located at UTEP is another government-funded center of excellence -– focusing on intelligence. It’s the Intelligence Community Center of Academic Excellence, which is one of a network of university centers funded by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). Backed by a multimillion dollar grant from the Director of National Intelligence, this center of academic excellence aims to “build a workforce prepared for 21st Century challenges” and to “broaden the base of diverse talent pools to achieve Intelligence Community mission effectiveness.”
In addition to graduate degrees such as a Master of Science in Intelligence and National Security, the new intelligence center at UTEP offers an undergraduate degree in Intelligence and National Security Studies. In addition the intelligence center, like the border security center, has an outreach program to area high school students to interest them in intelligence and homeland security careers.
In addition to IC CAE, UTEP is directly connected to the “intelligence community” through the newly established Regional Geospatial Service Center. The institute is part of a network of regional affiliates of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), which is one of the three major intelligence agencies of the Pentagon.
According to IC CAE’s description of the “intelligence community” of which it is a part, “NGA collects and creates information about the Earth for navigation, national security, U.S. military operations, and humanitarian efforts.” Established in 1995, NGA is closely integrated with private-sector intelligence contractors, including Booz Allen Hamilton and Lockheed Martin, who provide more than half of NGA’s workforce.
Sen. Hutchinson has been the institute’s main congressional supporter, and, according to the center, “Hutchison played a key role in securing the $1.9 million UTEP received to establish the center was instrumental in securing the continued funding for the center.” UTEP says that the center supports “UTEP research and service activities in a variety of areas including border security, economic development and public health. “ Rep. Reyes and Sen. Hutchinson have jointly included $10.2 million in earmarks for UTEP's Geospatial intelligence center since 2005.
UTEP as Minority-Serving Institution
UTEP’s success in attracting federal funding for these four new centers can be attributed to the leadership of its longtime president Natalicio and the power and influence of Rep. Reyes, along with the support of Sen. Hutchinson.
The creation of these homeland security, defense, and intelligence centers -- along with the growth of other UTEP research centers through National Science Foundation and other national grants -- is also due to the strategic selling of UTEP as a “minority-serving institution.” When UTEP approaches a foundation or government agency for funding, it stresses not academic excellence but rather that it is “Minority Serving Institution (MIS).” It points out that UTEP has a larger Mexican American majority than any other university in the country, and that it is the second-leading university granting diplomas to Hispanic students.
According to Natalicio, when she became UTEP president in 1988, “I began to articulate a vision of UTEP that was very inclusive and proclaimed our pride in being a Hispanic majority university, which we had just barely become.” Since then the slim majority has evolved into a large majority of 75 percent Hispanic students.
Natalico promotes UTEP as being on the “cutting edge of demographic change.” She realized that if she started promoting UTEP as a “research-robust majority Hispanic institution we could put ourselves on the map.”
As a result of this new identity, Natalicio has boasted, “We’re changing the face of higher education, and the image of success across the nation.”
Especially since the Sept. 11 attacks, the defense, homeland security, and intelligence agencies have been avidly seeking new members who could put their multicultural, bilingual skills to work. The MIS status of UTEP gave it a major competitive advantage in becoming grantees of DHS and DNI, both of which operate under directives to increase the presence of minorities among their agents.
In describing El Paso as having “tremendous potential to emerge as a key city for defense and homeland security-related investment and research,” Rep. Reyes points to the new opportunities that are becoming available to El Paso community students in homeland security and defense. Concerning UTEP’ new centers, Reyes observed:
“UTEP is already emerging as one of the premier institutions of higher learning for border security and intelligence, and I believe the National Center for Border Security and Immigration, the Center for Defense Systems Research, and the Intelligence Community Center of Academic Excellence are strategically capitalizing on our community’s unique assets to develop the next generation of leaders.
“Over the years, I worked to help UTEP secure these designations and to obtain funding for these types of centers. When I became Chairman of the Intelligence Committee, I pushed for additional funding for programs like IC CAE to increase the level of diversity and strengthen the Intelligence Community, by expanding the work to even more universities.”
-- Next: Dollars for Reyes: New Defense/Security Industry Campaign Support
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Tom Barry directs the TransBorder Project of the Americas Program (www.americaspolicy.org) at the Center for International Policy in Washington, DC. He blogs at borderlinesblog.