Thread: Border BoletÃ*n: More trouble with the virtual fence

Border BoletÃ*n: More trouble with the virtual fence

Brady McCombs
February 25, 2010 11:00 am

The Department of Homeland Security’s billion-dollar virtual fence continues to be plagued by delays, and legislators are growing impatient. Could the program’s future be in danger?

We have been following the development of this Boeing Co.-led virtual fence project since 2006 and we reported on Jan. 13 that DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano was ordering a department wide reassessment of the program. This past week, there’s been two more articles published detailing the problems with the SBInet program.

* LA Times: High-tech border fence is slow going
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and- ... 5652.story

* Federal Computer Week: SBInet's caretaker shares frustrations about delays, snafus
http://fcw.com/Articles/2010/02/22/Qand ... spx?Page=2


In the Federal Computer Week article, Mark Borkowski, the executive director of DHS Secure Border Initiative, says the nine-tower virtual fence system up along a 23-mile stretch of border flanking Sasabe, Ariz., won’t be turned over for use to the Border Patrol until September.

Officials hoped to have it up and running by January.

Borkowski admits in his interview with the Federal Computer Week that the program is at a critical point. Here is an excerpt:

“There is a certain urgency here. The delays have made it more significant. The secretary and the commissioner of Customs and Border Protection have had many discussions about the latest round of delays, which did, in fact, trigger the reassessment. The question is, is [SBInet] viable? Will the delays go away, or should we give up? Most of us believe it is viable, but the secretary wants to confirm that. We don’t want to be tilting at windmills.

Even if it is a viable system, it is still late. There is urgency in getting some IT contribution to the border. So even if we decide it is viable, what should we do near term to plug the borders?â€

No Finish in Sight for 'Virtual' Border Fence
The Washington Times
Monday, March 1, 2010
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/201 ... der-fence/

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