Thread: Electronic border fence fizzling out

I think we need to emphasize these points to Congress.
The Obama Administration promised to secure our borders.
The technology is not working.
Illegal aliens and drugs are still streaming across the border.
Border security is still years away.

http://www.theepitaph.com/border/322-el ... zzling-out

Electronic border fence fizzling out
Written by Adam Lehrer
Friday, 12 February 2010 18:24
A multi-billion dollar project aimed to electronically secure the U.S.-Mexico border has suffered setbacks and glitches in its system, pushing the projected completion date back three years and sparking concern among law enforcement teams in Cochise County.

Local law enforcement teams, such as the Tombstone Marshal's Office, are worried about the lack of a secure border's effect on enforcement strategy with the possibility that more contraband will be entering through their respective districts.

The $6.7 billion project, launched in 2005 by the Bush Administration, was supposed to secure the border using "virtual fencing" and electronic surveillance.

The project is overseen by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and is run though the Secure Border Initiative (SBI), a program organizing all four operating components of border security – personnel, infrastructure, technology, and rapid response – via SBI's major project, SBInet.

SBInet is a program initiated in 2006 for a new integrated system to secure the northern and southern land borders of the U.S., according to Department of Homeland Security.


President Obama recently proposed cutting $189 million from the project, pushing the estimated completion date of the virtual fence from 2011 to 2014.

Some law enforcement officials, such as Marshal Larry Talvy of Tombstone, are unconcerned about the effect the gaps in the virtual fence will have in Tombstone's law-enforcement strategy.

"Absolutely, drugs and people will still get through the Mexican border," Talvy said.
"I don't know if the gaps in the virtual fence will have any detrimental effect on the enforcement strategy of our team. We'll see how effective the virtual fencing is in the areas [along the border] where it exists."

The budget cuts came after U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano ordered a re-assessment of the virtual fence project.

Napolitano has been reported as saying the delays are unacceptable and that new and less-costly methods of securing the borders must be examined.

In addition, officials said the fence has been seriously hindered by glitches that have disrupted the effectiveness of the project.

Jim Wood, executive director and president of the Border Fence Project, a group advocating the necessity of a strong border, argues for strong border security as means of opposing the influx of illegal contraband into the country.

Wood feels that a virtual fence will prove futile without a strong physical barrier separating the U.S. from Mexico along the border.

"The illegals can move at too great a speed," he said. "Cameras on the border have failed as illegals typically advance past cameras in the Tucson sector undetained by Border Patrol."

The first portion of the virtual fence, a stretch of more than 20 miles in Sasabe, was supposed to be turned over to Border Patrol by the system's contractor, Boeing Co., for testing last month, but there have been delays due to problems with the video surveillance equipment, according to the Associated Press.

Other local law enforcement agencies in southern Arizona are afraid of the setbacks the lack of a virtual border fence will cause.

"It's going to hurt us on the border more than anyone else," said Lt. Octavio Gradillas of the Nogales Police Department.

"We're the first line of defense and were strapped as it is, we don't have enough agents. I believe the violence will spill over to the United States. We've been lucky that we haven't seen in it the U.S., but I think it's only a matter of time."

Talvy agrees that, if the virtual fence should go up, it will have its benefits.

"Oh there's no doubt if the whole fence will go up there will be a positive effect," he said.

Even with a virtual fence outlining the entire border, Talvy said, contraband will always come through the border and Tombstone Police's enforcement strategy only changes in regards to border trafficking, which is dependent upon the information they receive from Border Patrol and the physical presence of law enforcement.

"Even then, there's no way we can apprehend everything and everybody that comes through the border," Talvy said.

"As far as local departments, we'll still be out there patrolling hot spots and we will only change our strategies according to the information that comes to us."

Gradillas says a virtual fence will compensate for the areas of the border that are left unwatched due to a lack of border agents.

"It would enhance our border protection to keep an eye on more areas that are not being watched by man right now," he said. "The areas that are not being covered now would be better covered by fancy technology like that."

Officials from U.S. Customs and Border Protection could not comment on the issue at this time.

"We stand behind our federal partners in whatever way they want to sway," said Gradillas.
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It absolutely makes no sense not to have a monitored physical barrier. It is better than chasing those through the brush already here and try to round them up after they scatter. That is a waste of time and manpower.