THE HARTFORD COURANT SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 21,2010 A3 WORLD NATION Technical bugs plague high-tech border fence NEW MEXICO ARIZONA Tucson CALIF. San Diego Tijuana 300 MILES TEXAS El Paso Rio Grande MEXICO Completed areas of border fence As of Dec. 25 ''oniM 35 Brownsville By Richard A. Serrano WASHINGTON BUREAU An ambitious, multibillion-dol-lar project to hot-wire the new Southwest border fence with high-tech radar, cameras and satellite signals has been plagued by serious system failures and delays and now likely will not be completed for another seven years if it is finished at all. Indeed, the new system, originally intended to be done next year, still languishes in the testing phase in two small, remote spots of the border in southern Arizona.
There, the supposedly state-of-the-art system has been bogged down with radar clutter, blurred imagery on computer screens and satellite time lapses that often permit drug smugglers and illegal workers to slip past U.S. law enforcement agents, government officials candidly admit. "It turned out to be a harder technological problem than we ever anticipated," said Mark Bor-kowski, executive director of the electronic fence program at the Department of Homeland Security. "We thought it would be very easy and it wasn't. We thought we would put it up and turn it on and it would work.
It did not work." The problems have prompted Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to order a "de-partmentwide assessment" of the technology project once billed as the capstone to the controversial combined physical and electronic border fence. Tim Peters, vice president of Boeing Global Security Systems, the government's main contrac- TRIBUNE NEWSPAPERS SBInet, is projected to cost about $8 billion upon completion a much higher figure because the technology is more expensive than the physical infrastructure and was envisioned for the entire 2,000 miles of the border. The technology was designed to send signals and video images to nearby Border Patrol command centers, and agents would be quickly dispatched to investigate border breaches. But, Borkowski said, even sending signals at just two-second intervals was too slow because by the time cameras could fix on trouble spots, the intruders often were gone. "As it turned out, a few seconds is enough to lose the image," he said.
Still, Borkowski says, the government has not given up. And whatever happens, "technology usually helps with the surveillance part. A couple of towers frees up to 50 agents to do more response work. They really complement each other." com SOURCE: U.S. Customs and Border Protection effectively to get control of the border such as double fencing and more manpower," said Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the nonprofit Federation for American Immigration Reform.
That thought is not lost on Napolitano who, in ordering the reassessment, said "a comprehensive border security strategy must include an effective combination of physical infrastructure, manpower and technology." The Secure Border Initiative was once heralded as a sweeping plan to throw up a physical barricade and, separately, high-tech equipment to keep drugs, guns and illegal workers away from what has long been seen as a far too porous border. Borkowski said nearly all of the planned physical fencing is now in place along about 620 miles of border terrain "where we think we need it." He said another 30 miles still must be fenced in the Rio Grande Valley in south Texas. The cost for the physical fence was $3.4 billion. The high-tech phase, known as U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION PHOTO Technical delays have slowed the implementation of a high-tech fence along the U.S.
-Mexico border that would use sensors like this prototype. tor on the border project, said his company remains "dedicated" to correcting the problems. While the testing has taken far longer than planned, costing about $20 million so far and holding up the entire project, Peters said a much-improved high-tech system will evolve. "We have every reason to be confi dent," he said, that "future deployments will do exactly what they are designed to do." But the problems have prompted critics to call for fresh ideas to improve security along the frontier with Mexico. "Instead of spending a lot of time reassessing, they should get out there and do the sorts of things we know work An Unforgettable Dining A Thai Delight" est brands that's the magic of Macy's Delicious and Healthy'.
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