Posted on 02/17/2003 4:21:18 PM PST by hoosierskypilot
Our nation is on high alert for deadly terrorism attacks. But if our KIRO Team 7 Investigation into weak border security is any indication, there is reason to be concerned.
An exclusive KIRO Team 7 Investigation already sent the Justice Department scrambling to repair faulty border surveillance equipment.
Now, there are new problems.
Our expose into the breakdown of a new multimillion-dollar, high-tech camera system along the Washington-Canadian border recently sparked a Congressional inquiry and a federal audit.
But as KIRO 7 Eyewitness News Investigative Reporter Chris Halsne discovered, that's just the beginning of problems plaguing the Border Patrol.
The vast network of video cameras and computers supposedly protect our borders from terrorists, drug runners, and illegal immigrants.
We've already documented how the electronics of RVS, or Remote Video Surveillance, often fails. Now, we'll take you undercover to prove how the problem of porous borders goes way beyond that.
From the raspberry fields of British Columbia to the wind-swept deserts of New Mexico, Remote Video Cameras stand as a beacon of warning to those daring to illegally enter the United States.
"Crossing in that area is probably not the best thing to do because the chances are extremely great that you'll be spotted by a camera and there will be a response," said Paul Beeson of the Border Patrol.
The lenses can extend the eyes of Border Patrol agents for miles, but an undercover KIRO Team 7 Investigation discovered that doesn't mean RVS works to protect our borders.
"This is a blank spot. The next camera is beyond west and it can't see into here … blocked from the hill over there," said John Lanning, a rancher.
Lanning owns a ranch along the Mexican-US line. Lanning says illegal immigrants cross so easily, so frequently, he has taken to patrolling the area himself.
Halsne: "You don't think the cameras have been a great deterrent?" Lanning: "No, no. Ever since the day they put those in, all they did was simple walk around them or walk underneath them."
That's certainly true for one smuggler, named "Abraham." Our undercover team caught him along a desert road illegally running a truckload of diesel engines between Mexico and the US. Abraham told me crossing the border with drugs or people or weapons would be just as easy.
"It doesn't matter how may cameras or barricades they put it, if they don't have an officer presence there, they got nothing."
KIRO Team 7 Investigators spent a day with Lanning as a guide, testing Border Patrol responses. We didn't see an agent for three hours while we traversed between Mexico and the US.
He showed us road after road where illegal immigrants sneak into America to stay for good.
"No reason to crawl through the fence if you can drive through the gate," he said.
Our undercover team also watched smugglers called "coyotes" running people past cameras and agents alike. Tire tracks and footprints created their own roads every several hundred yards.
One of the things we noticed is that cameras along the southern border are placed near metropolitan areas. They're not placed in rural areas where they're really needed, like along a well-known smugglers highway we visited.
Near Minques, Mexico, we could see places where anyone could walk or drive between the two counties. There were spots with no Border Patrol agents, no post commands, and no cameras.
Justice Department documents obtained by KIRO Team 7 Investigators show sand and hot temperatures down South, and wet, cold conditions in Washington cause significant electronics glitches on a daily basis.
"It has worked well. There have been, uh, with any new piece of technology, there are going to be issues that need to be worked out and we have encountered issues that need to be worked out with the system."
Despite the breakdowns, the Justice Department has ordered $350 million worth of new cameras nationwide while trimming the budget for additional ground agents.
Border Patrol says with beefed up "maintenance" the camera system will be super-effective.
That may be, but our undercover investigation found that without working cameras on every stretch of our borders and agents to respond to activity on the monitors, it's truly easy to illegally enter this country.
I was testing my printer yesterday and got a laugh from your "mature internet chatroom immigration debate" cartoon from last year.
That's exactly the reaction I was aiming for when I doctored that baby up. Glad to hear it generated some nasal spray!
Sorry it hurt though... ;-] PsyOp.
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