North County congressmen react to 'virtual fence' cancellation

Lawmakers prefer physical barriers, enforcement


By EDWARD SIFUENTES
Posted: Saturday, January 22, 2011 7:12 pm

North County's congressional representatives said last week that they were glad to see the Obama administration scrap a high-tech border project that has been described as a virtual fence, saying they preferred increased enforcement and barriers to improve national security.

Earlier this month, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced she was pulling the plug on the virtual fence project, officially called SBInet, after numerous government reports criticized it as expensive and inefficient.

The virtual fence ---- a network of cameras, radar, sensors and satellite imagery ---- was supposed to detect illegal immigrants and drug traffickers between the ports of entry and other areas of the border, such as the rugged mountains in East County, where it would be too difficult to build fences because of terrain and other factors.

It was supposed to alert U.S. Border Patrol agents to intruders so they could respond to those areas.

Rep. Duncan D. Hunter, R-El Cajon, whose father, former Congressman Duncan Hunter, long championed a physical barrier rather than an electronic one, said the focus should now be on building fences to prevent drug cartels and other criminals from crossing into the United States.

"In place of the virtual fence, the best option is pedestrian fencing that stops illegal foot and vehicle traffic," said Hunter spokesman Joe Kasper. "Supplement that infrastructure with agents and other forms of available technology, such as cameras and sensors, and suddenly the border becomes far more secure."

When she announced the end of the program, Napolitano said the department's new technology strategy for securing the border would focus on using existing, proven technology tailored to the distinct terrain and population density for each region of the nearly 2,000-mile border with Mexico.

The virtual fence was approved under the Bush administration in 2006 amid a clamor over the porous U.S.-Mexico border. Nearly half a million people were arrested in fiscal 2010, which ended Sept. 30, attempting to enter the United States illegally. The project cost taxpayers nearly $1 billion under a contract with Boeing, but yielded only about 53 miles of protection in a pilot project in Arizona.

Kasper called the project a boondoggle, adding that canceling it was "the right thing to do."

"After all these years exploring a technology that never really worked in the practical sense, there is still plenty of time and opportunity to implement solutions that actually work," Kasper said.

Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Solana Beach, agreed that the Obama administration was right to abandon the project. The virtual fence was chosen as an alternative to building an actual fence for political reasons, not security, Bilbray said.

When the project was approved in 2006 along with 700 miles of new physical barriers, Mexico's then-President Vicente Fox criticized the new fencing with then-President-elect Felipe Calderon. Both men called the barrier shameful, offensive and ill-conceived.

The virtual fence was seen as a less offensive alternative, said Bilbray, who is chairman of the Immigration Reform Caucus, a group of Congress members who favor stricter immigration enforcement.

"It was the politically correct way to build a fence, and it was oversold," Bilbray said. "It was given an impossible task, and it was doomed from the get-go."

Bilbray said fences should be used near urban areas to prevent illegal immigrants and drug smugglers from coming into the country. He said the solution to illegal immigration was interior enforcement, such as inspections at work sites.

"It's easier to talk about being tough at the border," he said. "It's much harder to talk about your neighbor hiring illegal workers."

The virtual fence's fate was all but sealed in January 2010, when Napolitano suspended spending on the project. She ordered a study to determine whether SBInet could be fixed to work effectively, and spent $50 million of its funding to buy other technology and Border Patrol vehicles.

By then, the project had a long list of glitches and delays. Its radar system had trouble distinguishing between vegetation and people in windy weather, and cameras moved too slowly. Satellite communications also were slow.

In April, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, sent a letter to Napolitano asking for a new, comprehensive plan to protect the border and asked the administration to continue building physical barriers.

A spokesman for Issa, Frederick Hill, said Thursday that the congressman has not received an answer to his request for a comprehensive border security plan.

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