Homeland Security Axes Bush-Era 'Virtual Fence' Project

ABC ^ | January 14, 2011 12:49 PM | Jason Ryan

[goodnesswins]

A fence like THAT would be a great JOBS program! We need to get started.....like what was done in the Depression with roads, etc.....

[1010RD]

Hispanics vote in astonishingly small numbers IIRC.

[Hulka]

“This virtual fence project was a hoax to begin with. We said it was, and guess what, it didn't work.”

Actually, it does work now. Ajo I station is up and running and the Border Patrol Agents like its performance.

The SBInet towers have an enhanced capability over the much smaller, and less capable, MSS trucks. The multi-spectral detection capabilities are significant and light-years ahead of the older, lass capable (and limited IR-only) MSS tucks.

My son works Ajo as a Border Patrol Agent and he and his brother Agents like working together with the towers. They think it a mistake to cancel now that the technology is fixed and operational. They see this as a calculated ploy on the part of Big Sis Nappy-Pants and The Messiah to cook the illegal immigration books. You know, less detections mean less coordinated interceptions and reduced illegal captures. When the numbers are down this means Big Sis Nappy-Pants and The Messiah are doing good. . .right? That their illegal immigration coddling-Mexico mmigration policy works because the number of apps is way down.

The decision to cancel has nothing to do with capability, it has everything to do with politics.

[HollyB]

This video is a battle that took place on the border last November. We need all the security we can get to keep this from penetrating our borders. (Caution on the below video - it’s grusome).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nX2gtblTeqI&feature=related

[DoughtyOne]

Hulka, thank you for your comments.

I believe that some of these measures do have a positive effect. I am by no means convinced that they are doing the job.

The border agents may like working with the virtual fence tools. Frankly, we’re being over-run anyway.

I still believe we will continue to be over-run by foreign nationals until we get serious about stopping every person, and making them pay heavily on the second and third apprehensions.

We don’t have enough agents. We don’t get tough enough on repeat offenders. We don’t do much about folks already here. Our schools are full of the children of illegal immigrants.

So you know what, I’m in favor of an edifice being built down there on the border. Make the thing out of concrete and 50 feet high. Sink it into the ground by 20 feet too. And if anyone messes with it, open fire on them. Nothing less is going to do the trick.

Then I think you arm our people down there and make it plain, the invasion is over. And then you start rounding people up and deporting them en mass.

I don’t like having to take measures like this, but there’s no way in hell any nation should put up with what is taking place on our border.

The U. N. supports it, because it serves it’s purposes to see nations destabilized. Why are we playing that game?

Right now we have people on both sides of the isle catering to the illegals and their blood relatives. Our policies are drafted to placate them. That is destabilization.

It has to stop. And no, I’m not convinced the virtual border tools are the answer. Call me stubborn, an A. H. or whatever, but I’m not buying into it. The only way it would work is if we had fully staffed that area, unlike all the areas that aren’t fully staffed.

[ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas]

This virtual fence project was a hoax to begin with. We said it was, and guess what, it didn't work. Well, here we are seven years later and we're back to square one. Who could have predicted this? Well, just about everyone on this forum that didn't have their nose firmly implanted. At least we got to add millions if not billions to the national debt to pay for it.

Good post D1.

Obama doesn't want to secure the border, but then neither did GWB. I don't object to trying out new ideas, but (even assuming that he and Chertoff sincerely thought it was a good idea) GWB could have deployed a lot more national guard troops on the border while they were evaluating the so-called "virtual fence."

[Hulka]

I agree with you, even your last sentence. The SBInet vision was to be part of the answer, not THE answer.

Now. . .if we can get the AUSA (Assistant US Attny’s) to take drug smuggling cases. The AUSA’s have an unofficial “threshold” of 500-lbs before they will take a case for prosecution.

The illegal, breaking into our country and smuggling 50-lbs of drugs as a way to pay his coyote, he gets a pass and is back in mexico in 24-hrs, and yet, an American citizen gets years in jail for a baggie.

Madness.

[eak3]

i will blame Bush for this fence. How many years ago did Congress aprove this? They F’d around and never built the damn thing and look at us now.

[LtKerst]

I would like to see this fence built in a circle and all the democrats placed inside it.

[af_vet_rr]

When I said it was their brainchild, I didn’t mean they thought up with their own brains, just that some powerful people with big brains did it and gave it to them to pass through Congress.

I would say it was some rich people looking to get richer who gave it to them to pass through Congress ;-)

[af_vet_rr]

Hispanics vote in astonishingly small numbers IIRC.

They don't vote much in Texas - less than half the state is now white, but you wouldn't know it by the state legislature.

[af_vet_rr]

Right now we have people on both sides of the isle catering to the illegals and their blood relatives. Our policies are drafted to placate them. That is destabilization.

It has to stop. And no, I’m not convinced the virtual border tools are the answer. Call me stubborn, an A. H. or whatever, but I’m not buying into it. The only way it would work is if we had fully staffed that area, unlike all the areas that aren’t fully staffed.

It's not just Republicans and Democrats who cater to the illegals and their relatives or who look the other way, it's a lot of large businesses that benefit from illegal immigrants coming in and undercutting the labor pool. 9/11 happened in 2001. There are billions of dollars, I mean billions of reasons why Bush and then Obama dragged their feet on actually securing the border, since the border is now the easiest way to enter the country for somebody determined to do us harm. Those dollars, I mean reasons, all have to do with big businesses that buy off the politicians.

I don't care what kind of fence you build, as long as there are a lot of companies, builders, and developers willing to hire the illegals, they are going to keep trying to come over. We have to do two things, and they go hand-in-hand.

1) Work on physically securing the border.

2) Dry up the availability of jobs for illegals. That means severely punish any company, from a 5-man lawn cutting crew up to billion dollar construction companies, for hiring illegal labor.

Too many companies are getting off with fines thanks to their rich lawyers and politicians who look the other way, from factories that hired large numbers to small companies that pull up in front of the day labor camps or the local Home Depot and have a few illegals jump in the back of the truck. It's worth risking the fines they receive because of how much money they save by hiring illegal immigrants instead of law-abiding Americans.

If Joe's Lawn Care Service hires illegals, Joe needs to lose the right to operate a business and Joe needs to spend some time in prison.

If the Megabuilder Construction Corporation is hiring 100s and 1000s of illegals across the US to build homes and buildings, then Megabuilder Construction Corporation should lose the right to operate as a business in this country, and the people from the lowest employees who hired the illegals all the way up their chain of command to the CEO need to do some jail time and have some felonies on their records.

You start putting those guys who make 100s of thousands or millions a year into jail, you can be damn sure that all of the sudden the executives of those companies will suddenly get interested in hiring American citizens. Until you severely punish those companies and those executives and managers, they are going to keep on risking the fines and hiring the expensive lawyers to get out of it.

By encouraging millions of illegals to cross the border, these companies are committing treason and destroying our national security, because they are tying up border patrol agents and other law enforcement personnel that could be spending their time looking for potential terrorists rather than having to waste their time arresting people who are looking for a lawn mowing or house building job. They are also avoiding paying various taxes in many cases, which means other Americans are having to foot the bill and pick up the slack so those executives can get their million dollar bonuses.

Unfortunately, our politicians are not interested in seeing those rich executives go to jail in large numbers because those rich executives toss too much money and lobbyists at them.

[ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas]

i will blame Bush for this fence. How many years ago did Congress aprove this? They F’d around and never built the damn thing and look at us now.

Rinos didn't want to secure the border, because that was their bargaining chip for "comprehensive immigration reform" (i. e. amnesty).

[ExSoldier]

Fence, hell. I want a moat and sniper towers along a thirty foot wall.

Yup -- with a minefield on both sides of the wall about 500 meters deep. You'll only have a few unfortunate collateral losses before EVERYBODY gets the word and all attempts cease. I love the way liberals claim that building that 30 foot wall will only cause somebody to build a ladder 31 feet tall. Think of the Berlin Wall. At the height of it's operation when all those countermeasures were in full force, it made international news when even ONE person made it through.