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Senators call for scrapping 'virtual fence'

(AP) 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.



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I guess it only works on virtual illegal aliens???

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.

First is there a reason why we are spending this money in such a stupid fashion, and secondly is there some reason that the same technology that is being used in Afghanistan and Pakistan and many other areas.... Namely the "drone".. Cannot be used effectively, along our border's.

It would be cost effective and would reduce foot traffic very quickly.

It is hard to understand why it would not work.. As it is working right now in the mentioned areas..

Perhaps the concept of reduced funding to the "effort" has Agency's looking over their shoulders' ..

This as their current and past efforts have been just sterling..