Thread: DHS official: Virtual border fence a ‘complete failure'

I think we need to keep hammering this point home. Obama, and other Democrats, explicitly promised that our borders would be secured before moving ahead with an immigration amnesty, In this first article even Roland Burris, acknowledges that this failure should be investigated.

And in the second article, Janet Napolitan announces that DHS is not even going to fund any further virtual fence construction.

And, now, two Senators have even called for its complete elimination
"What are they going to do," is what we need to ask. Apparently very little.


DHS official: Virtual border fence a ‘complete failure'
By STEPHEN LOSEY | Last Updated: April 20, 2010

The Homeland Security Department today said its virtual border fence has been a "complete failure," and is trying to figure out how to proceed on the troubled $2 billion project.

Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Alan Bersin told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that some individual pieces of surveillance technology in the SBInet program have worked. But integrating them together into a comprehensive system — which was to be the heart of the SBInet program — has proven to be more complicated than current technology can handle, Bersin said.

"I wouldn't say that theoretically, at some point, we couldn't have the kind of sophisticated technological integration that SBInet originally projected," Bersin said. "But in the near term, wholesale integration is not a goal that is practicable," Bersin said.

Bersin would not say whether Homeland Security would cancel the contract.

Homeland Security hired Boeing in 2006 to install thousands of video and infrared cameras, radars and ground sensors to provide constant surveillance along the Southwest border. Computers and software were meant to combine that information to produce a real-time picture of smugglers and migrants.

But after spending between $700 million and $800 million to build a 28-mile pilot version of the system in Arizona, Homeland Security has almost nothing to show for it. The system has difficulty seeing clearly and often transmits false alarms.

Bersin said Homeland Security is now conducting an assessment of the program to see if the project can continue, or, if not, if anything can be salvaged. The department is also reviewing each sector along the U.S.-Mexico border to figure out what technologies would help them secure their areas against smugglers and illegal immigrants. He did not say when those assessments would be completed.

Lawmakers are outraged at the project's failure. Sen. Roland Burris, D-Ill., said that the Government Accountability Office should conduct an investigation to find out how it got so badly off-track.

And Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said that SBInet's failure is especially troubling while Mexican drug cartel violence is growing and risks spilling over into American border towns like El Paso.

"It's a disgrace," McCain said.

http://www.federaltimes.com/article/201 ... 4/4200310/
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Virtual U.S.-Mexico Border Fence At A Virtual End

by Ted Robbins

March 17, 2010


The Department of Homeland Security's plan to build a virtual fence across the U.S.-Mexico border has come to a crashing halt just days before the release of a report expected to slam the system.

Homeland chief Janet Napolitano beat the Government Accountability Office report to the punch when she announced Tuesday that she's freezing funding for the Secure Border Initiative Network.

Homeland Security hired The Boeing Co. 3 1/2 years ago to build a string of towers along the 2,000-mile border. The towers were to integrate off-the-shelf products — cameras, radar, connections to ground sensors — so that Border Patrol agents could see who and what was coming across in real time.

Boeing made big promises about SBInet's capabilities.

"Ninety to 100 percent of all illegal crossers, this camera system was going to identify and characterize this threat," said Rich Stana, who wrote a report on the project last year for the GAO.

Boeing built a 28-mile test section in the Southern Arizona desert. It didn't work. The company regrouped, redesigned and redeployed one set of towers near the first set. It is building another section right now. The entire border was supposed to be covered a year ago, but after three years — and $1.4 billion — the system is still full of bugs.

"Well, it sort of works," Stana said.

A new GAO report obtained by NPR says the bugs are coming faster than the fixes.

"It's not a matter of, you know, do you look at the screen and see things?" Stana said. "Yes, you're going to see some things. The question is: Are you going to see things over time? Is it a quality image and is it a reliable image?"

So far, the answer is no. The new report even says some tests have been rigged to guarantee success.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, said DHS is to blame for letting things go this far.

"The department could've been far more vigilant in its oversight," the Mississippi Democrat said. "But I can tell you there's no energy or stomach on this committee for this project continuing in its present form."

An executive from Boeing, which referred questions to Homeland Security, is set to appear before the House Committee on Thursday. Although fence funds have been frozen, DHS spokesman Matt Chandler said $50 million will be diverted to buy things such as mobile cameras, ultralight aircraft and more radios for the Border Patrol. "This is going to immediately improve our ability to secure the U.S.-Mexico border by redirecting these funds to proven solutions that meet the urgent needs that exist right now," Chandler said.

For years, a majority of lawmakers in Congress have said the border needs to be secure before they will consider immigration reform. So will the failures of SBInet serve as more justification to delay it? Former Immigration and Naturalization Service director Doris Meissner said that would be a mistake.

Virtual fencing or real fencing, she said, will help. But it will not stop people from trying to cross the border for jobs.

"The border is not the single answer to the problem of illegal immigration," Meissner said.

The virtual fence may have had a stake driven through its heart, but it's not dead yet. Homeland Security says it needs to complete a review of the program before deciding how or whether to continue the program.
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Senators call for scrapping 'virtual fence'

Tue Apr 20, 5:35 pm ET

WASHINGTON – Two senators said Tuesday it's time to consider ending a contract for a "virtual fence" along the U.S.-Mexico border, contending it doesn't stop illegal immigration.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., even suggested an old-fashioned, real fence may work better than the electronic one designed by Boeing Co.

"We're counting on you to give us a direct assessment and take action to either terminate the contract or take from it what may work," Lieberman told Border Protection Commissioner Alan Bersin.

Lieberman, chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said at a hearing on border security: "The best answer to this continuing crisis and continued flow of illegal immigrants into the U.S. is to go back to the old-style fences, double- and triple-tiered, and layered."

Sen. Roland Burris, D-Ill., asked Bersin whether the contract could be canceled. Bersin said he was not able to render a judgment on a legal issue.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said in March that she was halting funding to expand the virtual fence that originally was supposed to monitor most of the 2,000-mile southern U.S. border by 2011. It now covers only a portion of Arizona's boundary with Mexico.

The virtual fence is a network of cameras, ground sensors and radars designed to let a small number of dispatchers watch the border on a computer monitor, zoom in with cameras to see people crossing, and decide whether to send Border Patrol agents to the scene.

The fence was part of President George W. Bush's security plan.

Bersin said that the contractor has been unable to integrate the system to allow central monitoring of the border.

"In the near term, the secretary (Napolitano) concluded the wholesale integration is not a goal that is practicable or would produce the kind of results we want to see," Bersin said.

After the shooting death of a rancher, Republican Sens. Jon Kyl and John McCain of Arizona asked Monday for National Guard troops to be deployed along Arizona's border.

The request for 3,000 troops was part of a 10-point plan that includes hiring 3,000 more Customs and Border Protection agents for Arizona, building new fences and increasing aerial surveillance.

But after spending between $700 million and $800 million to build a 28-mile pilot version of the system in Arizona, Homeland Security has almost nothing to show for it. The system has difficulty seeing clearly and often transmits false alarms.

Boeing made a ton o" dough and we have nothing to show for it.