BORDERPOL announces speaker lineup for North America security meeting

BORDERPOL North America Directorate is holding its first International Security Meeting “Curtailing Terrorist Travel” on September 9-11, 2015 in Washington, D.C.

The meeting, which is coordinated by the Secure Identity & Biometrics Association (SIBA), will address the increasing threat of covert terrorist travel via comprehensive discussions of international law, travel document security, biometrics and other intelligence, port of entry security, and securing land and sea borders.

The keynote speaker will be Rep. John Katko (R-NY) who serves as a chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee “Task Force on Combating Terrorist and Foreign Fighter Travel”, as well as chair of the committee’s Transportation Security Subcommittee.

“I am honored for the opportunity to speak with stakeholders and vested groups about the need for securing our borders and protecting America from violent extremism,” said Katko. “This Congress, my colleagues and I have worked to ensure that we look at all aspects of our national security as it pertains to foreign travel, and I look forward to an expanded dialogue regarding this important issue at the upcoming BORDERPOL International Security Meeting.”

Other speakers include Patty Cogswell, chief intelligence officer for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and former acting deputy and special assistant to the President; William Hochul, U.S .attorney for the Western District of New York and former chief of the Department of Justice’s National Security Division; Jamie Solesme, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Staff sergeant responsible for U.S.-Canada Border Intelligence and Enforcement; Doug Gilmer, deputy unit chief for the FBI National Joint Terrorism Task Force; Tony Smith, former director general of the UK Border Force and president of Citizenship and Immigration Canada; David Alania, Border Patrol Chief Captain of Georgia; and Geoff Shank, U.S. Marshal appointed by the Attorney General as the deputy director of INTERPOL Washington and NSC Policy Committee member for Foreign Terrorist Fighters, Information Sharing and Counter-Terrorism.

They will be joined by Joel Zlotnick, supervisory physical scientist for the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Consular Affairs, Counterfeit Deterrence Laboratory; James Chaparro, former Deputy Under Secretary for the DHS Office of Intelligence and director of the Human Smuggling and Trafficking Center; Albina Yakubova, programme manager of organization for Security Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Transnational Threats and Border Security; and Peter Vincent, former General Counsel for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Director of International Affairs.

“We are the only organization that brings senior border agency personnel from around the world,” said Janice Kephart, North America BORDERPOL director and former 9/11 Commission border counsel. “This meeting is unprecedented, and of high need. BORDERPOL is committed to addressing this critical need.”

Kephart recently discussed the International Security Meeting in an interview with BiometricUpdate.com.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  border management  |  border security  |  BORDERPOL  |  conference  |  Janice Kephart  |  SIBA  |  terrorism