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  1. #1
    Senior Member FedUpinFarmersBranch's Avatar
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    Virtual Fence expected,span nearly entire border in 5 years

    Feds to begin building virtual fence expected to span nearly entire Mexican border in 5 years
    ARTHUR H. ROTSTEIN
    6:00 PM CDT, May 7, 2009

    TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — Federal officials plan to start construction within weeks on a new "virtual fence" along the U.S.-Mexico border that they say could almost completely cover the nearly 2,000-mile frontier within five years.

    The first permanent towers holding sensors, cameras and communications gear to detect drug smugglers and illegal immigrants will be built along 53 miles of Arizona's border with Mexico, said Mark Borkowski, a Customs and Border Protection official in charge of the program. He briefed The Associated Press in advance of a general announcement expected on Friday.

    More towers, up to 120 feet tall and spaced miles apart, will follow on the remaining 320 miles of the state's southern border. Virtual fencing then will go up in New Mexico, followed by California and most of Texas, said Borkowski, executive director of the Homeland Security Department's Secure Border Initiative program.

    "Construction should start imminently," Borkowski said. "We're in the final throes of convincing ourselves that the engineering is fine."

    The plans follow a prototype virtual fence that federal officials and others found inadequate for the job, and Borkowski said improvement probably will be made to the final version after border agents begin using it.

    Depending on funding, the whole southwestern border except for about 200 miles around Big Bend National Park in Texas would be covered by 2014, Borkowski said. That area would also eventually be outfitted with the system.

    "It's in our list of to-dos," Borkowski said. "It's just such a rugged area, we think it's the last place we need to do."

    Plans for a virtual fence on the Canadian border aren't fully developed.

    The electronic monitoring is meant to supplement pedestrian fencing and vehicle barriers that have been built along 624 miles of the southern border. About 46 more miles of fencing are planned.

    Borkowski declined to estimate what the entire southwestern virtual fence project will cost, though Adam Comis, press secretary for the House Homeland Security Committee, said the cost is estimated to be about $6.7 billion by 2014.

    The primary contractor, the Boeing Co., has received about $600 million so far for technology development on the initiative. As of a year ago, Boeing also had received some $260 million for construction of physical border fences and vehicle barriers, primarily in Arizona and Texas.

    The virtual fence is designed to use radar and cameras with about a six-mile range, including infrared devices and other technologies, to detect smuggling attempts. The sensors are designed to be able to distinguish people from animals and allow operators to direct Border Patrol agents to intruders.

    A prototype virtual fence strung across 28 miles of the southern Arizona border has been in use since late 2007.

    The Government Accountability Office told Congress last year the prototype fence did not fully meet expectations and its design wouldn't be used as the basis for future developments. It is still operating, though, and its portable towers will be used in test scenarios elsewhere.

    "I am hopeful that the department and its contractors have learned from previous failed attempts and will apply those lessons to the deployment (of the new system). We will be watching closely until SBInet is complete," Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee and a critic of the initial virtual fence efforts, said via e-mail Thursday.

    The decision to move forward with construction was met with caution by a border security advocacy group.

    "They've spent a lot of money and time on one (virtual fence) that didn't work very well, so there's reason to be skeptical," said Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform. He said the high-tech devices aren't a substitute for the promised actual fencing.

    Borkowski said he expects changes will be made to the system as it is built, noting that its primary user — the Border Patrol — had only a small role in designing it.

    "We actually want the Border Patrol to use this system and gain experience and then to tell us what they want us to add to the system," he said.

    When the prototype system came under criticism, Homeland Security and Boeing officials emphasized that it was built with off-the-shelf equipment to demonstrate that the concept would work, and acknowledged that the components proved less than ideal.

    Jenny Burke, a spokeswoman for Borkowski, said there have been 5,196 apprehensions as a direct result of sightings since the end of September 2007.

    The first new towers will be spread across 23 miles near the small border town of Sasabe, Ariz., and another 30 miles along the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.

    The four-legged steel towers will have 2,500-square-foot footprints. From 40 to 120 feet tall depending on terrain, they will be perched on concrete block pads inside fenced compounds, equipped with solar battery rechargers and backup generators.

    Several will be deployed away from the border along known smuggling routes, Borkowski said.

    Arizona has been the primary entry point for illegal immigrants from Mexico for at least a decade.

    ___

    On the Net:

    Boeing Secure Border Initiative and SBINet: http://tinyurl.com/6xt3yq

    U.S. Customs and Border Protection/SBI: http://cbp.gov/xp/cgov/border_security/sbi/

    Do you think Obama will turn it on ...

    http://www.fox4kc.com/news/nationworld/ ... 0565.story
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  2. #2
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    And who is to say that some on this side of the border won't dismantle these towers? And FIVE years to almost cover the border; why rush?
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  3. #3
    Senior Member vmonkey56's Avatar
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    Put up double or triple layer fencing, too.
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  4. #4
    Senior Member crazybird's Avatar
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    Wooo.....virtual cameras so we can watch it continue. Makes for nice documentaries.
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  5. #5
    usatime's Avatar
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    Sounds like a govt works project. They should just do it right the first time and stop wasting our $$. I can just imagine the mexican govt will sue the US to shut down the radar because it is irradiating their people.
    287(g) + e-verify + SSN no match = Attrition through enforcement

  6. #6
    Senior Member bigtex's Avatar
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    Re: Virtual Fence expected,span nearly entire border in 5 ye

    Quote Originally Posted by FedUpinFarmersBranch

    Do you think Obama will turn it on ...
    No, furthermore he will probably change his mind about starting it.
    Certified Member
    The Sons of the Republic of Texas

  7. #7
    Administrator Jean's Avatar
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  8. #8
    Larry's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by crazybird
    Wooo.....virtual cameras so we can watch it continue. Makes for nice documentaries.

    Too Funny!

    They'll use the images/data for a $72,000,000,000,000 8-year study to determine if people are really sneaking into the U.S.A. across the Mexican border.

  9. #9
    Gunnner134's Avatar
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    Wouldn't be cheaper just to take a stick and draw a line in the sand or a spool of string with signs that read "DO NOT CROSS!!!???"
    Oh wait...that's kind of what we're doin' now....

  10. #10
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by vortex
    And who is to say that some on this side of the border won't dismantle these towers? And FIVE years to almost cover the border; why rush?
    They tried that with some of the first towers in AZ. The radar and cameras let the Border Patrol know that they were in the area and that they approached the towers so the Border Patrol drove out and arrested them.
    (Actually all they were trying to do was disable the cameras.)
    NO AMNESTY

    Don't reward the criminal actions of millions of illegal aliens by giving them citizenship.


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