Immigration Law

Technical Issues Hamper Border 'Fence'

By Robert Kraft

The Dallas Morning News reports that there have been delays in the government's virtual fence along the Texas-Mexico border. Here are excerpts from the article:

Congress' patience with work on a $6.7 billion "virtual fence" along the border is wearing thin, even as the project's government supervisor reported that the earliest the technology will be put to work on the border is 2011.

"I think they're going to give us a chance to succeed. I don't think they're going to give us a lot of time," said Mark Borkowski, executive director of the Department of Homeland Security's Secure Border Initiative.

Borkowski, the project's third director in three years, testified Tuesday at the House Appropriations Committee's panel for homeland security.

Technical problems have plagued the virtual fence project, known as SBInet and under federal contract to Boeing since 2006.

The latest test drive of the technology at the end of last year revealed "open issues" and caused computer crashes, Borkowski said. The next step will be field tests this spring at two locations in Arizona.

By the end of the year, Borkowski told the panel, the department will evaluate the system. At the earliest, it could be used along the Arizona border in 2011. Under the current plan, it will eventually be used along the stretch of the entire U.S.-Mexico border, including Texas, Borkowski said.

Full post as published by Immigration Law Answers Blog on March 11, 2009 (boomark / email).