With SBInet in limbo, border technology is anyone's game.

• Author: Beidel, Eric
• Position: BORDER TECHNOLOGY - Secure Border Initiative

TUCSON, Ariz. -- Authorities have closed public recreation areas here and peppered the harsh desert landscape with foreboding messages about threats rising from the Mexican border.

"DANGER--PUBLIC TRAVEL NOT RECOMMENDED. Active Drug and Human Smuggling Area," reads one sign at a destination popular for its towering saguaro cacti, Indian relics and wildlife. "Visitors May Encounter Armed Criminals and Smuggling Vehicles Traveling At High Rates. Stay Away From Cash, Clothing, Backpacks and Abandoned Vehicles. If You See Suspicious Activity, Do Not Confront!"

Against this backdrop of fear, local entrepreneurs envision another kind of sign: "Open for Business."

The Department of Homeland Security's program to deploy a network of cutting-edge cameras, sensors and communication technologies along the southwest border has hit its share of snags and more recently a wall. DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano earlier this year ordered a review of the Secure Border Initiative's technology efforts, dubbed SBInet, and diverted money away from the program. The secretary put a moratorium on new work under the initiative.

This uncertainty leaves the door open for other attempts to bring technology to the U.S. borders with Mexico and Canada.

In the north and the south, partnerships are forming between universities and small businesses in the name of security and profits. The players want secure borders, but they also want DHS to spend more money in their regions.

Mike Crosby recently relocated his surveillance and communications firm from the nation's capital to Tucson and joined a group of university and industry executives trying to solve the border crisis brewing a little more than an hour's drive south.

"It's the sector where DHS is spending most of the money," Crosby said. "We want to be right here in the heart of it. As they say, 'follow the money.'"

Crosby's company Aria International has become a partner in the Border Security and Technology Commercialization Center. The BSTCC makes its headquarters at the University of Arizona Science and Technology Park, a sprawling 2 million square feet of offices and laboratories on more than 1,300 acres just outside Tucson's city limits. The center exists mostly on paper right now, but the plan is to give an economic shot in the arm to border communities by providing local companies a way to test and deploy technology on the U.S.-Mexico line. The ultimate goal is to create a series of testing facilities and research parks along the border between Tucson and Santa Teresa, N.M., where the university has a partner in the Bi-National Sustainability Laboratory, a nonprofit organization that could bring in...