A bill sponsored by U.S. Rep. Xochitl Torres Small, known as the Securing America’s Ports Act, is calling for additional resources that would allow U.S. Customs and Border Patrol to scan and inspect 100% of vehicles and cargo containers entering the country. The bill would seek to scan all vehicles and cargo crossing the nation’s borders using “large-scale non-intrusive inspection systems,” or NII systems, that use technology ranging from large-scale X-ray and gamma-ray imaging scanners to portable handheld scanners.
CBP has estimated that they currently can only scan about 15 percent of commercial trucks and less than 2 percent of passenger vehicles at ports. If successful, the bill would greatly strengthen CBP’s ability to combat the trafficking of humans, drugs and weapons at all U.S. land ports. Read more HERE.