U.S. Scraps "Virtual Fence" On Border
Faysal Khabbaz Hamoui, Ambassador of the Permanent Representative Mission of the Syrian Arab Republic to Geneva, attends a special session of the Human Rights Council at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Friday, June 1, 2012. The Human Rights Council holds a special session on "the deterioration of the human rights situation in the Syrian Arab Republic and the recent killings in Houla". (AP Photo/Keystone, Salvatore Di Nolfi) / Salvatore Di Nolfi
The government is scrapping a $20 million prototype of its highly touted "virtual fence" on the Arizona-Mexico border because the system is failing to adequately alert border patrol agents to illegal crossings, officials said.
The move comes just two months after Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced his approval of the fence built by The Boeing Co. The fence consists of nine electronic surveillance towers along a 28-mile section of border southwest of Tucson.
Boeing is to replace the so-called Project 28 prototype with a series of towers equipped with communications systems, new cameras and new radar capability, officials said.
Less than a week after Chertoff accepted Project 28 on Feb. 22, the Government Accountability Office told Congress it "did not fully meet user needs and the project's design will not be used as the basis for future" developments.
A glaring shortcoming of the project was the time lag between the electronic detection of movement along the border and the transmission of a camera image to agents patrolling the area, the GAO reported.
Although the fence continues to operate, it hasn't come close to meeting the Border Patrol's goals, said Kelly Good, deputy director of the Secure Border Initiative program office in Washington.
"Probably not to the level that Border Patrol agents on the ground thought that they were going to get. So it didn't meet their expectations."
The Border Patrol had little input in designing the prototype but will have more say in the final version, officials said.
Agents began using the virtual fence last December, and the towers have resulted in more than 3,000 apprehensions since, said Greg Giddens, executive director of the SBI program office in Washington.
But that's just a fraction of the several hundred illegal immigrants believed to cross the border daily near southwest of Tucson.
The virtual fence is part of a national plan to use physical barriers and high-tech detection capabilities to secure the Mexican border - and eventually the Canadian boundary.
Boeing was awarded an $860 million contract to provide the technology, physical fences and vehicle barriers.
"Boeing has delivered a system that the Border Patrol currently is operating 24 hours a day," Boeing spokeswoman Deborah Bosick said. She declined further comment.
Project 28 was not intended to be the final, state-of-the-art system for catching illegal immigrants, Giddens said. "I think some people understood that and some didn't. We didn't communicate that well."
© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The move comes just two months after Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced his approval of the fence built by The Boeing Co. The fence consists of nine electronic surveillance towers along a 28-mile section of border southwest of Tucson.
Boeing is to replace the so-called Project 28 prototype with a series of towers equipped with communications systems, new cameras and new radar capability, officials said.
Less than a week after Chertoff accepted Project 28 on Feb. 22, the Government Accountability Office told Congress it "did not fully meet user needs and the project's design will not be used as the basis for future" developments.
A glaring shortcoming of the project was the time lag between the electronic detection of movement along the border and the transmission of a camera image to agents patrolling the area, the GAO reported.
Although the fence continues to operate, it hasn't come close to meeting the Border Patrol's goals, said Kelly Good, deputy director of the Secure Border Initiative program office in Washington.
"Probably not to the level that Border Patrol agents on the ground thought that they were going to get. So it didn't meet their expectations."
The Border Patrol had little input in designing the prototype but will have more say in the final version, officials said.
Agents began using the virtual fence last December, and the towers have resulted in more than 3,000 apprehensions since, said Greg Giddens, executive director of the SBI program office in Washington.
But that's just a fraction of the several hundred illegal immigrants believed to cross the border daily near southwest of Tucson.
The virtual fence is part of a national plan to use physical barriers and high-tech detection capabilities to secure the Mexican border - and eventually the Canadian boundary.
Boeing was awarded an $860 million contract to provide the technology, physical fences and vehicle barriers.
"Boeing has delivered a system that the Border Patrol currently is operating 24 hours a day," Boeing spokeswoman Deborah Bosick said. She declined further comment.
Project 28 was not intended to be the final, state-of-the-art system for catching illegal immigrants, Giddens said. "I think some people understood that and some didn't. We didn't communicate that well."
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virtually illegally. What a waste of taxapyer money, which is not virtual.
98% of all hand picked produce is harvested by Illegals!
I bet your parents or grandparents were illegals - and you are probably the product of that illegal act.
You should be Kissing their Assess - I also bet that you act 1/2 a million tacos yourself last year!
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Posted by watcher269
I find it hard to beleive if we cut the stay at home welfare class, these jobs wouldn''t be filled. This nation was built by our ancestors you say wont do these so-called jobs.
df/deportation.pdf
13. In 2006 illegal aliens sent home $45 BILLION in remittances back to their countries of origin. http://www.rense.com/general75/niht.htm
n
14. "The Dark Side of Illegal Immigration: Nearly One Million *** Crimes Committed by Illegal Immigrants In The United States". http://www.drdsk.com/articleshtml
nTotal cost is a whooping... $338.3 BILLION A YEAR!!!
Posted by thcarson at 10:41 PM : Apr 23, 2008
Would it be cheaper to send one back or to give food stamps, house and give them medical care for a year?
Posted by MCVet at 04:44 PM : Apr 23, 2008
The democrats are some of the major players against securing the border. Help clean up your house.. and dont be so nasty to your neighbor (the republican). They will clean up their house too. Be a good boy now! Go on!
98% of all hand picked produce is harvested by Illegals!
I bet your parents or grandparents were illegals - and you are probably the product of that illegal act.
You should be Kissing their Assess - I also bet that you act 1/2 a million tacos yourself last year!
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Posted by watcher269
Somebody would still pick the crops just at a legitimate wage so don''t give me that *** about I wouldn''t eat, that''s pretty weak. My ancestors legally immigrated to this country by the way. Illegals are draining and bankrupting this country.
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If it wasn''t for the Illegals in America - You WOULDN''T EAT!
98% of all hand picked produce is harvested by Illegals!
I bet your parents or grandparents were illegals - and you are probably the product of that illegal act.
You should be Kissing their Assess - I also bet that you act 1/2 a million tacos yourself last year!
18. Rudy is a obvious sympathizer who probably supports illegal invaders