April 2008
Border Security Delayed Again
n another display of government mismanagement and outright incompetence, the U.S. government admitted last month that it cannot even build nine towers with radar and cameras along the porous and inadequately guarded border with Mexico.
The Bush administration announced in March that it has scaled back plans to build what it hailed as a "virtual fence" along the Mexican border, delaying the project for at least another three years. The virtual fence, announced by President George Bush two years ago, was to be constructed in place of a real fence, consisting only of tower-mounted sensors and electronic surveillance gear.
The announcement was yet another setback for border security, following close on the heels of a decision by Congress in December to scale back and reduce the physical border fencing called for in earlier legislation adopted before the 2006 elections.
The virtual fence, which in reality is not a fence at all, was intended to complement the 300 miles of physical fencing finally under construction along the border. But the Government Accountability Office has warned that even the physical fence may be delayed too. President Bush did not request any money to complete the construction in his 2009 budget sent to Congress.
The virtual fence was to consist of nine towers with radar, cameras, and motion sensor devices to detect human movement. The infomation collected was to be linked via radio transmission to laptop computer screens displaying maplike projections of the border area under surveillance, enabling Border Patrol agents to track and direct law enforcement personnel, if available. The towers would not, of course, present any obstacle to anyone crossing the border illegally. They would be apprehended only in the undermanned Border Patrol had agents at the ready.
Sources familiar with the project said the electronic equipment failed to work as intended, so the project will be delayed for at least three years.
