The Fence to Nowhere
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Not that you needed any more evidence from me that the Secure Fence Act was the mother of all border b.s. measures to come out of Washington, but here’s the latest story to add to the pile:
The Bush administration has scaled back plans to quickly build a “virtual fence” along the U.S.-Mexico border, delaying completion of the first phase of the project by at least three years and shifting away from a network of tower-mounted sensors and surveillance gear, federal officials said yesterday.
Technical problems discovered in a 28-mile pilot project south of Tucson prompted the change in plans, Department of Homeland Security officials and congressional auditors told a House subcommittee.
Though the department took over that initial stretch Friday from Boeing, authorities confirmed that Project 28, the initial deployment of the Secure Border Initiative network, did not work as planned or meet the needs of the U.S. Border Patrol.
The announcement marked a major setback for what President Bush in May 2006 called “the most technologically advanced border security initiative in American history.” The virtual fence was to be a key component of his proposed overhaul of U.S. immigration policies, which died last year in the Senate.
Investigators for the Government Accountability Office had earlier warned that the effort was beset by both expected and unplanned difficulties. But yesterday, they disclosed new troubles that will require a redesign and said the first phase will not be completed until near the end of the next president’s first term.
Those problems included Boeing’s use of inappropriate commercial software, designed for use by police dispatchers, to integrate data related to illicit border-crossings. Boeing has already been paid $20.6 million for the pilot project, and in December, the DHS gave the firm another $65 million to replace the software with military-style, battle management software.
In an interview, Gregory L. Giddens, the department’s executive director for the border effort, confirmed that “we . . . have delayed our deployment as we work through the issues on Project 28. While there is clear urgency of the mission, we also want to make sure we do this right.”
Boeing has said that the initial effort, while flawed, still has helped Homeland Security apprehend 2,000 illegal immigrants since September. It estimated in 2006 that it would spend $7.6 billion through 2011 to secure the entire 2,000-mile southern border, an ambition that was meant to win support from conservatives for legislation creating a guest-worker program and a path to legalization for 12 million illegal immigrants.
But officials said yesterday that they now expect to complete the first phase of the virtual fence’s deployment — roughly 100 miles near Tucson and Yuma, Ariz., and El Paso, Tex. — by the end of 2011, instead of by the end of 2008. That target falls outside Boeing’s initial contract, which will end in September 2009 but can be extended.
The virtual fence was to complement a physical fence that the administration now says will include 370 miles of pedestrian fencing and 300 miles of vehicle barriers to be completed by the end of this year. The GAO said this portion of the project may also be delayed and that its total cost cannot be determined. The president’s 2009 budget does not propose funds to add fencing beyond the 700 or so miles meant to be completed this year.
I’m so sure John McCain and Juan Hernandez would do a better job.
Meanwhile, ahem, the $1.4 billion Mexican stimulus/border security plan forges ahead unopposed.
Your tax dollars (not) at work.
***
Meanwhile, lawlessness reigns…
A crackdown on drug and human smuggling rings at the U.S. border with Mexico has sparked an increase in violence against border patrol agents.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials say the number of assaults is up this fiscal year after more than doubling between 2004 and 2007, USA Today reported Wednesday.
“We’ve had occasions of people shooting at agents, trying to run agents down with vehicles, throwing large rocks or pieces of brick or concrete at agents, which can actually be fatal,” says Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.
Chertoff says the escalation is the result of stepped-up enforcement that aims to put smugglers out of business.
Most of the assaults have involved “rockings” in which rocks, bricks and objects are thrown at agents.
Agent Shawn Moran of the Border Patrol in Imperial Beach, Calif., told USA Today the rockings are “like biblical stoning. This is like what they used to do to kill people.”
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Trackbacks
- The McCain Mutiny » The Unfinished Fence
- Michelle Malkin » Right on: Conservative Senate Republicans get serious about immigration enforcement
- Immigration enforcement: Like putting shoes on a reluctant toddler » Pursuing Holiness
- Michelle Malkin » Surprise, surprise: Fence In Name Only won’t be done by deadline
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Thanks John Ansell. I agree Perfesser. I am so sadened by the state of things. I will vote for Congress and local matters here in TX.
Well, at least in Prince William County, Virginia, they are fleeing..en mass. Unfortunately, more and more of them are coming to Fairfax County.
RealImmigrantChick, I already voted absentee in Texas. I feel better going to the polls and looking them in the eye, so to speak, but didn’t have a choice this time. Do vote people, staying home or failing to mail your absentee ballot will ensure we lose.
Well Perfeser, I’m stuck with Harman and given the amount of money her hubby has, Jane will be there until she’s ready to retire. We need term limits now more than ever
Our corporate overlords own our political overlords. They want a new world order and the NAU is a start. These guys aren’t destroying American sovereignity because they are dumb – they are doing it because they think they are smarter than we are and because they think they are going to get even richer by doing it.
And the American electorate is doing its utmost to see that it happens. I see so much denial – ‘it’s all a conspiracy theory and you are all dumb if you believe it’ – the Constitution will save us.. Well bull – we are already losing the freedom of speech – McCain-Feingold, the Fairness Doctrine will be back, the hate speech and crimes legislation… what else has to happen for you to deal with what is happening.
I read the comments on the Conservative blogs – your concern about someones view on abortion or gay marriage or the HLA – is more important than the sovereignity of the US and maintaining our system of government. We insist on litmus tests that eliminate the ability of some very patriotic individuals to help this country – the same kind of identity politics that has radicalized the left. We help destroy a candidate because – oh God forbid – he is a Mormon – we can only support a “true” Christian. And truthfully I did have my concerns about Mitt – but that is based on his corporate background – and what I see the global (once American) corporations have promulgated on America.
Yes – some of you feel strongly about these social issues – I truthfully disagree with you on many – but I have been willing to disregard them and support a Conservative candidate if they were true believers because the US meant more to me.
I am a little “c” conservative in the current conservative arena – and probably a little “c” Christian according to the views I see. I believe conservatism is a political and not a social ideology and I believe the latter is destroying our ability to save America.
Sorry for the diatribe, but I am so angry with what I see is happening to my country and how we are hamstringing ourselves so much that we will lose what we hold dear about America.
Too much emphasis on the fence and not enough on enforcement of our immigration and employment laws.
The fence has been a welcome distraction for the imbeciles in DC. If we concentrate on ETL (Enforce the Laws) the invaders will not stay if they know the free ride is coming to an end due to enforcement.
So, uh, tell me more about this Nader guy. And Perot. What’s he doing nowadays?
zyzzyg said:
Damstraight. Let them file an I-130 for a legal visa like many of us have had to do!
Marrying an illegal is a crime, no?
Unaffilated, no problem with the diatribe. I agree, the Constitution won’t save us. They ignore it, or if they are challenged, they come back with it being a “living, breathing” document…whatever that means. I’ve seen the Constitution a few times. I can report, with confidence, that it isn’t alive or breathing. I disagree with McCain-Feingold; a big mistake. I also don’t care if the candidate is Mormon or even Jehovah Witness, if he/she came out with conservative values. Heck, I’d vote for a moslem if he was a conservative moslem and came out 100% against terrorism and border violations…and wanted the country to be a country of the American dream. With most politicians it is, “Me first, party second, country third”. What happened to the statesmen where “country first” counted for something?
I know, let’s put the feds in charge of our healthcare too!
NumbersUsa says republican leaders in the House need a little nudge in helping to force a vote on the SAVE ACT sponsored by conservative democrat Heath Shuler and republican Brian Bilbray.This is enforcement only and legislation.NumbersUsa endorses this bill.
Thanks graysonret – I sometimes think that my “old-fashioned” view of America and my conservatism based on Goldwater and the old-timers is discounted every time I see those basic political values secondary to the new values of Conservatism. I do think on social issues I have a touch of liberatarian!
I am a capitalist, but what we have now is what I refer to as unfettered Capitalism. The system that allowed these people to flourish is being pushed aside for greed and power. The new breed of capitalists unfortunately have been borne out of the socialism that infects our academia – so they also have been educated (rather miseducated) to believe that America is always wrong.
As far as religion – I agree with you – if it is the right person I don’t care what his religious background is (or his social value system). Unlike you I have to admit I’d have a problem with a Moslem .. and probably a Scientologist… but I’d be willing to listen.
Our elected officials on both sides of the aisle (I was going to say fence, but well…)are bumbling, incompetent, narcissistic, self-indulgent egomaniacs who care only about votes and cocktail parties.
Americans on both sides of the aisle want the darn fence built, and illegals stopped from streaming in.
We do not understand why, when we can send man to the moon, shuttles into orbit, and blast wayward satellites to smithereens in the great beyond, a fence can’t be built.
It’s a SOFTWARE problem? Gimme a break.
Looks like good legislation, PTN. Here’s the link about it at Numbers USA:
Attrition Through Enforcement
How many examples do you need people? Arm yourselves, and do not wait for the government to protect you. They do not care what any of us think. They are funded by special interest groups.
Consider large dogs you raise with love to alert you, and help you should you need it. Once a week clean your weapons. Make sure your BDU’s, head light, and gloves or ready to put on in a hurry. Keep your door locked.
Don’t forget to put some polish on those boots men!
Gee…you mean congress lied to us in order to shut us up? Say it ain’t so. /sarcasm
The Mexico militia are setting up machine gun nests from time to time ON AMERICAN SOIL in their attempts to rescue their stuff from American security forces, usually the Border PAtrol.
Maybe the American government and Mexico would like to see a bunch of AMERICAN machine gun nests set up on the American side to protect our border, with all that “foreign aid” money from American taxpayers. Just to match the ones set up by Mexico on American soil, these days.
All my life, I remember stories of how our military, or sheriffs and possies have stopped square on that border when chasing any type of outlaw, or Indian raiders on the American side, when they cross the border, our officials respecting that border regardless of the damage the escaping marauders have done to American and Texas settlers.
Maybe we have been way too easy on them. They haven’t ever tasted what they’ve DISHED. I refer to both our own govt and to Mexico, for what they have dished to AMerican Citizens.
It is not a good thing for abusive souls to never taste what they dish. This side of Hell – it gives them no opportunity on this earth to ponder their own conduct, and their own lack of wisdom. That just isn’t fair, you know.
I don’t have the slightest doubt that this is intentional. Bush is determined to destroy America and turn it into a corporate vision of cheap labor and Chinese labor slavery.
Civil War, is looking increasingly more inevitable.
OmbreRose, maybe we need another General Pershing…
This is a terrible article about the fence and problems. There state there are some problems with some software but not what they are or how much they are effecting the fence overall. I mean I caught this line:
“while flawed, still has helped Homeland Security apprehend 2,000 illegal immigrants since September”
and I bet that is more then double they got in the area without the fence. Of course the media is against the fence so I guess they will put any news they can on it in a negative way.
The problem with the fence is FINANCE
as in
Fence Is Non-existant And Never Coming — Ever
and STATISTICS
as in
Support The Amnesty That I‘ll Sneak Through In Congressional Subterfuge
brooklyn red said:
No. You can marry whomever you want. But like marrying a convicted criminal, you have to face the fact that your relationship will be fraught with hardships and you’ll be spending a lot of time apart until you both get right with the law.