Sec. Of Homeland Security In EP For Border Security Conference

EL PASO, TX. – Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoffwill bethe key-note speaker atthe International BorderSecurity Conference, which is going on atthe University of Texas at El Paso Monday and Tuesday.

The conference is being held at the Undergraduate Learning Center on theUTEP campus. Officials are looking at new strategies in border security, stronger intelligence ties between theU.S. and Mexico and drug trafficking interdiction in El Paso. This is the fourth year thatUTEP, which is becoming a big player for research in border security, has played host to this conference.

UTEPPresident Diana Natalicio and Congressman Silvestre Reyes, the head of the House Intelligence Committee, kicked off the security conference Monday by holding a news conference at the Undergraduate Learning Center. Dr. Natalicio pointed out thatUTEP is one of just six univerities in the country to receive a$500,000 grant from the Director of National Intelligence to create an intelligence community center for academic excellence.

The school has also received$1,000,000to create a Center for Defense Systems Research. Both Reyes and Natalicio said it’s fitting to conduct these kinds of conferences in El Paso which is sometimes misunderstood when it comes to border security issues.ABC-7 did take note of some interesting strategies and equipmentat the conference thatare being developed to policethe Southwest’sborders.