Napolitano halts funding for 'virtual fence'
Posted on Wednesday, March 17 @ 02:16:55 EDT
Topic: Department of Homeland Security
|
 WASHINGTON -- Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced Tuesday that she has cut off funding for a costly surveillance system billed as a "virtual fence" to protect the Southwest border.
Effective immediately, the Department of Homeland Security will redirect $50 million of Recovery Act funding originally allocated for the Southwest Border Initiative's SBInet to be spent instead on other tested, commercially available security technology, Napolitano said.
Subjects = Illegal immigration, Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano, cut funding, virtual fence, DHS, secure border, taxpayers
March 16, 2010
Erin Kelly
azcentral.com
The federal government has spent about $1.1 billion in contracts with Boeing Co. to develop SBInet, which is being tested in the Ajo and Tucson areas of Arizona.
The surveillance system, initiated in 2006 under the Bush administration, employs sensors, cameras and radar mounted on towers to provide intelligence to Border Patrol officials.
But there have been frequent delays and failures with its equipment, including problems with cameras remaining steady in bad weather. Napolitano has often expressed frustration with the program.
"Not only do we have an obligation to secure our borders, we have a responsibility to do so in the most cost effective way possible," Napolitano said in a written statement. "The system of sensors and cameras along the Southwest border known as SBInet has been plagued with cost overruns and missed deadlines."
The system was supposed to be deployed along the entire border last fall, but completion had been pushed back to 2016 because of all the problems.
Napolitano said the $50 million in Recovery Act money will instead be used for mobile surveillance, thermal imaging devices, ultralight-aircraft detection, mobile radios, cameras and laptops for pursuit vehicles, and remote video surveillance system improvements.
Napolitano also announced that her department would freeze all SBI net funding beyond its initial deployment to the Tucson and Ajo regions until an assessment that she ordered in January is completed.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., praised Napolitano's decision as good news for taxpayers.
"After spending over $1 billion of taxpayers' dollars on a failed system of sensors and cameras along the Southwest border, known as SBInet, I am pleased that Secretary Napolitano has decided to instead turn to commercially available technology that can be used to immediately secure our border from illegal entries," McCain said. "I have been calling for congressional oversight and administrative action on this issue since it became clear that SBInet was a complete failure."
DISCUSS THIS ARTICLE WITH OUR ONLINE ACTIVISTS AT...
|
|
| |
| Article Rating | Average Score: 5
Votes: 4
| |
|
Contribute/Join
