Posted on 11/13/2016 11:45:55 AM PST by Meet the New Boss
The Obama administration will halt new work on a "virtual fence" on the U.S.-Mexican border, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced Tuesday, diverting $50 million in planned economic stimulus funds for the project to other purposes.
[T]he move signals a likely death knell for a troubled five-year plan to drape a chain of tower-mounted sensors and other surveillance gear across most of the 2,000-mile southern border.
That vision, initiated in 2006 by President George W. Bush, called for a series of networked cameras, radar and communications gear to help speed the response of U.S. Border Patrol officers to catch illegal immigrants and smugglers over the vast border area. However, the effort has been plagued by technical problems and delays with prime contractor Boeing Corp.
snip
"Not only do we have an obligation to secure our borders, we have a responsibility to do so in the most cost-effective way possible," Napolitano said. "The system of sensors and cameras along the Southwest border known as SBInet has been plagued with cost overruns and missed deadlines."
snip
Last year, DHS officials predicted SBInet would cost $6.7 billion to secure the full border, minus a 200-mile span in southwestern Texas that is difficult to cross and expensive to monitor.
The Government Accountability Office, Congress's audit arm, has found the government rushed to use off-the-shelf equipment without adequate testing. Boeing initially relied on police dispatching software that was not able to process the vast flow of information streaming from the desert, and other technical problems plagued cameras and radar.
SBInet is the federal government's third attempt to secure the border with technology. Between 1998 and 2005, it spent $429 million on earlier surveillance initiatives that were so unreliable that only 1 percent of alarms led to arrests.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Kevin McCarthy to Chris Wallace: The wall "could be all virtual with the UAV airplane"
Chris Wallace: "Paul Ryan fudged on that too this week, so you're not committed to a brick and mortar wall?
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Folks, get ready for the same ol' shuck and jive from the Chamber of Commerce Cheap Labor Express GOP-e!
How is that virtual fence working
GOPe: “Turn those virtual cameras off, we have a wave of cheap labor ready to cross the border!”
Not interested in a damn virtual fence.
I’d much rather have virtual government.
Build a real wall.
“Kevin McCarthy to Chris Wallace”
Team Trump needs to announce that anything McCarthy says is pure fantasy...the man is an embarrassment!
Boeing?
Why?
that is the problem
A company getting contract because they spread the cheese around DC, not because they are “good at it”
It doesn’t
Cameras fail, sensors break, power system die
The system was nonsense, just a giveaway to big donors
Build the real wall and get this over with
Was never anything but a ruse to avoid building a real, physical barrier as required by the Secure Fence Act of 2006, and also a waste a of few billion dollars. A George W. Bush ruse on the American people carried forward.
Why can’t US citizens simply shoot at all illegals as they cross the border?
Bring V Corp home from Europe. Add to the Corp the 2nd Infantry Division brought home from Korea. Augment this force with border States National Guard units as needed.
Give the Corp Commander the simple mission "Secure the southern border."
The TRUMP WALL once it's completed can be manned by a reduced Corp until, the US Border Patrol is up to speed again. The Border Patrol agents intially can concentrate on operation of the big fancy entrance gates to allow only those with valid visa's to enter.
This started first in 1998 and then in 2006? Wow. There’s some real urgency to getting this done! MCM could do a real fence faster. Trump knows people who could do it, too.
MCM article. They don’t screw around.
http://mcmconstructioninc.com/about-mcm-construction/
Not just that but our Terrorist in Chief announced hundreds of BP have been pulled out of AZ and CA.
Psst, y’all come right on through. We’ve rolled out the red carpet for you.
We should have a virtual fence, and actual fence (and wall), electronic surveillance, and a vastly increased Border Patrol and ICE.
Not very well. The big flaw was no computer controlled chain guns as follow-up.
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