Posted on 12/06/2006 12:29:09 PM PST by SwinneySwitch
DHS also says the high-tech answer to border control will take 5 years to build
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration's plan to build a high-tech ''virtual fence" along the Southwest border will require nearly $8 billion and five years to complete, the Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday.
The report, demanded by Congress, provided the most detailed timeline and cost estimate yet for completion of a Secure Border Initiative designed to bring the border under operational control by the end of 2011.
The Department of Homeland Security concedes that it has effective control of 284 miles of the nearly 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border. Its goal is to control 345 miles by next year and the entire border in five years.
More than 1 million people are apprehended yearly trying to enter the U.S. illegally through Mexico, and billions of dollars in illicit drugs and other contraband are smuggled into the country even as Congress and the Bush administration have devoted significant new resources to heighten border security.
The crucial part of the border-control initiative is the "virtual fence," known as SBInet, designed to deter illegal immigration and provide effective border control with a mix of ground sensors, lighting, aerial surveillance, fencing and vehicle barriers.
As an early part of the "virtual fence's" development, the government has earmarked $20 million for a project beginning in Texas in January known as the Texas Mobile System. The effort will provide mobile observation towers and ground sensors along sections of the Texas-Mexico border.
The plan adjusts for differing geographical, traffic and other considerations.
In San Diego, for instance, the department is adding to miles of physical fencing built in the 1990s.
The department's spending outline offers no sign, however, that it is moving ahead on a mandate by Congress to build 700 miles of actual fencing along the Mexico border, including nearly 300 miles in Texas.
This year, Bush signed into law a bill that ordered up 700 miles of fencing — nearly double the amount sought by the Department of Homeland Security — but didn't provide funding for the mandate.
"There is no question that traditional fencing is a core element of our strategy at the border, particularly in urban areas," said Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke. "And it certainly is going to be a core part of SBInet as we go forward. But experience has proven that in more desolate areas, military-proven technology is going to be more advantageous for our Border Patrol."
The Department of Homeland Security pegs SBInet's costs at $7.6 billion, but the department's own inspector general estimated last month that costs could swell to $30 billion.
"It does seem the numbers may be low," Sen. Judd Gregg, the New Hampshire Republican who chairs the Senate panel that funds the department's operations, said Tuesday of the $7.6 billion estimate.
Gregg welcomed the department's strategy, however.
"It's being done aggressively because we've put the resources in to do it aggressively," he said.
But Gregg said Congress will watch how the money is spent, noting that two prior border-control efforts were mired in technological difficulties, cost overruns and ultimate failure.
The most recent prior effort, the America's Shield initiative, "turned out to be total junk," Gregg said. "And we were set back by almost five years. We can't go through that exercise again."
michelle.mittelstadt@chron.com
• High-tech solution: Congress and the White House are pushing forward with SBInet, a security plan that would deploy a mix of fencing, sensors, cameras and other surveillance technology to create a virtual barrier along U.S. borders.
• Current costs : SBInet will cost $1.2 billion this year and $7.6 billion through 2011 on the southern border alone, the Department of Homeland Security reported.
ping
Sounds like a great way to expand pork opportunities.
And to be tripped by every Jackrabbit that comes along.
What's the matter with building a real, visible, concrete-and barbed-wire fence?
This just sounds like a Contract giveaway.
While not build a 'real' fence, aka wall, that is cheaper and more effective.
Pay for it by fining the **** out of companies that support illegal immigration.
Nothing like wasting taxpayers money!
No "virtual" fence, build the real thing and keep the varmints out.
Too easy to complete, and, too cheap (not enough payoffs to contractors). Too visible - the public can see and understand if they're being ripped off by shoddy fence construction. All this hi-tech crap is easier to conceal, and make excuses for, when it doesn't work.
They don't need a Virtual Fence. And it certainly shouldn't cost $8M.
We have all the labor we need - millions of illegal invaders.
We have all the material we need - a lot of rock along the southern border.
Put them together and build the wall.
They should take a look at the Great Wall of China and use that as a pattern.
When they finish have them dig a moat on the Mexican side of the wall.
VOILA!! TWO problems solved for the cost of one.
We can use aerial surveillance to make sure nobody is crossing it.
ropes and wire snippers? :p
8 billion for a virtual fence? I guess the illegals have crossed over into virtual reality.
Actually,I think it is the people in our government, elected and appointed, that live in virtual reality.
The Pentagon took 16 months to build at a cost of $83 Million (1943 dollars). Pentagon Facts & Figures
Is there anything our current government can touch without screwing it up completely? < /rhetorical >
Border Fence bump for later..........
But the statistics will be wonderful. They will show that we need an extra Billion for more sensors because our count is only accurate to the second decimal place.
Maybe we can tie these into a virtual hunting game in which you get to zap illegals as they cross the border. Then the virtual ICE agents can arrest them.
Boy do they take us for the fools we often are.
That would be around 943 million in todays money. Not bad.
How about we enforce the law and fine every freaking company that hires illegals.
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