U.S. Scraps "Virtual Fence" On Border

Officials Say $20M System Failed To Adequately Alert Patrol Agents To Illegal Crossings

(AP)  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."

[frankinaz]

All the virtual fence was going to do was to stop the virtual illegal immigrants, virtual drug dealers, and other virtual criminals from entering this country
virtually illegally. What a waste of taxapyer money, which is not virtual.

[corey2444]

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!




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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.

[corey2444]

12. The National Policy Institute, "estimated that the total cost of mass deportation would be between $206 and $230 billion or an average cost of between $41 and $46 billion annually over a five year period." http://www.nationalpolicyinstitute.org/p
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?

[corey2444]

You know you have GOT to take off a few of those swastika''''s. YOU fascist have total control of the entire government for 6 years. YOU freaks could have passed any law you wishes... YOU could have made it a REAL crime for Companies to employ illegals. What did you do? NOTHING! Yep the Republican Fascist did NOTHING in 6 years and you want to blame the Clintons? That''''s absolutely rediculous!! Now let''''s let the fuhrer know you pathetic bootlickers are still out here spreading the hate and propaganda for the Reich. SIEG HEIL BUSH!! Good little nazi!!

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!

[thcarson-2009]

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!




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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.

[watcher269-2009]

Posted by thcarson

---------------

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!

[thcarson-2009]

18. Rudy is a obvious sympathizer who probably supports illegal invaders

[rudy654-2009]

17. There were like these illegals and they were like actually working and like um, Wal Mart doesn''t have anybody working because many can''t like, pass a drug test.

[rudy654-2009]

16. Last year illegals flushed their toilets, like a lot of times. Oh my god.

[cbsblogger]

As long as illegal immigration helps the Bush "have mores" and the likes of Michael Chertoff, who supports the USA second or third, we will have open borders.

[keithle1]

Private contractors/companies continue to milk Uncle Sam dry. Like this is going to work. Please. Dream on. Why don''t you just shoot everyone as they come over the border? That will be a lot cheaper.

[brittanicus-2009]

Immigration has direct massive negative consequences on today''s and yesterdays economy.
Are you now living from paycheck to paycheck, wondering how your going to feed your family, making your mortgage payment.
You need to be aware of how much Uncle Sam is secretly skimming off your taxes and diverting into government freebies
for immigrants and illegal foreign nationals.

This is a document that should disturb you, because the globalist open border, free traders do not want you to see it. This is an thoroughly researched analysis of immigration costs, that the hierarchy of the U.S. government and special interests groups do not want you to read.

Now you can read the disturbing details in the new 70-page document called %u201CThe Economic and Fiscal Impact of Immigration%u201D by Edwin S. Rubenstein (www.eagleforum.org/sources). A Manhattan Institute adjunct academic with a mile-long scholarly resume, he has been doing financial analysis ever since he directed the studies of government waste for the Grace Commission of 1984.

[jnr1005]

Saying McVet is "disgusting" is just an insult to the disgusting people. There are no words in English to describe a person as repulsive and as offensive and as sickening as McVet. He is, without question, the worst person on all the CBS forums. Total scum.


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Posted by jackie0428 at 07:10 PM : Apr 23, 2008


couldn''t agree more

[rudy654-2009]

mcvet you''''re disgusting. seriously, enough with the nazi comments. my great grandmother was killed in germany. so even is bush is a horrible president he hasn''''t killed hundreds in gas chambers and concentration camps. stop being ignorant.
Posted by jnr1005 at 07:03 PM

I don''t know about Bush, but you people seem to forget that Hitler didn''t kill all those people for the several years he ruled Germany, but only during his final four or five years in power. He had been in power from 1933 - 1945 for a total of 12 years. But when he started, it started with little things like destroying the constitution and then abolishing it altogether. No, you can''t compare Bush to all those years, yet.

[jackie0428]

Saying McVet is "disgusting" is just an insult to the disgusting people. There are no words in English to describe a person as repulsive and as offensive and as sickening as McVet. He is, without question, the worst person on all the CBS forums. Total scum.

[jnr1005]

mcvet you''re disgusting. seriously, enough with the nazi comments. my great grandmother was killed in germany. so even is bush is a horrible president he hasn''t killed hundreds in gas chambers and concentration camps. stop being ignorant.

[randynason]

More money down the toilet. Thanks, George Bush, aka, anal retentive, rabid pink monkey.

[cyberus-2009]

And sadly ... like most of these projects ... rather than companies being required to put forth a bid to install a working product they get to collect millions to install garbage.

[namesnames]

MCVet: You seem to have all the answers.

[dog7771]

If you legalize them, they will be eligible for normal US wages and benefits, and might join Unions. The GOP will never stand for that.