Thread: DHS revives troubled border security contract, slams L-3 for

DHS revives troubled border security contract, slams L-3 for botched job

Greta Wodeles National Journal Technology Daily

Jan 5, 2006

In one of Woody Allens movies, two elderly women sit down to lunch at a Borscht Belt resort. The food here is terrible, the first woman complains. Its awful, the second woman agrees. Ive been to many places, the first woman continues, but this is the worst. And on top of that, the second woman chimes in, the portions are so small. This is, more or less, the story of the ill-fated 1997 contract to bolster security along U.S. borders with Canada and Mexico. Lets begin with the present then move back in time.

After some hemming and hawing, DHS is reviving its plan to replace outdated technology with a new one along U.S. borders. Two days ago the department posted an RFI asking companies for data by next month about "highly mobile detection systems" with long-range, thermal night imaging, cameras, wireless communications equipment, monitors, and remote controls to help border patrol officers. The RFI was posted by the customs and border protection directorate (CBP), and it said that the agency would install the new system on the existing infrastructure at the southern border. CBPs predecessor, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), placed the infrastructure there in the late 1990s.

The border technology contract the INS signed soon ran into big problems. A scathing 2004 DHS IG report charged that tens of millions of dollars were wasted under the 1997 deal because the contractor -- New York-based L-3 Communications -- overcharged for its equipment and installation costs, and government officials knowingly allowed the company to install faulty equipment. The report claimed that the federal government paid L-3 a total of $234 million for an incomplete and inadequate job. In 1997 the INS hired Norwalk, Connecticut-based International Microwave Corp. (IMC) to install cameras on poles along the Mexican and Canadian borders. L-3 Communications acquired IMC, and IMC's cameras-on-poles contract, in 2003. DHS soon found that IMC, now an L-3 division, botched the job: It was not clear what was worse: The fact that IMC installed faulty cameras that could not deliver the promised coverage; or that the company installed too few of them too far apart so that, even if the cameras worked as promised, they would cover but a tiny fraction of the area they were supposed to cover; or the steep overcharging for a job not-done, an overcharging which shocked and angered lawmakers who found it especially brazen. DHS had enough, and in September 2004 it terminated the L-3 Communications contract altogether.

Wednesday's RFI is not kind to L-3. Referring to the equipment L-3 and IMC were installing on U.S. borders only a year ago, and for which the company received nearly a quarter of a billion dollars, the border patrol office claimed that L-3 Communications technology is "no longer state of the market and has been superseded many times over by technological advancements." Ouch. The agency added that after officials canceled the old INS contract, field operations have been in limbo, which is "significantly challenged by the ever-changing threat environment."

Concerns about terrorism and illegal immigration made the story of L-3/IMC's expensive failure especially sensitive. Last fall DHS launched the Secure Border Initiative (SBI) which called for more agents, advanced technology, and enhanced infrastructure to control both the northern and southern borders within five years, and to improve enforcement of immigration laws. SBI encompasses the America's Shield Initiative (ASI), which focuses on buying high-tech devices for the borders, and which is expected cost $2.5 billion. Congress provided $31 million in fiscal 2006 funding for the initiative -- $20 million less than the administration had requested.

You know--it is just ALARMING that our government CONTINUES to make such MAJOR FISCAL SNAFU'S. Of course, the Pentagon is INFAMOUS for this type of WASTE but I guess DHS must be taking their lessons from the Pentagon. Wonder if Halliburton is, in any way, related???? If a business was run like our government, they would be bankrupt within a year.

Seems to me that if the government would hire more people to go after all employers who hire illegals and kept on it then we would see people going across the border TO Mexico and Canada. Makes sense to me. After all if business after business is hit up and fined employers would be slower in hiring illegals than they are now. After a while illegals would not be able to find anyone to hire them and the millions that are here would be making their way back to their own country.

That's EXACTLY right, UBGold. I think the best place to start IS to start cracking down on the EMPLOYERS and I think there are several efforts in this direction. Until these employers feel the PAIN IN THEIR WALLETS, they are going to continue to do what is most profitable to THEM and that is to hire illegals. Why would they WANT to stop after all?? Right now, they have NOTHING TO LOSE and EVERYTHING TO GAIN.