Glitches, Delays Disrupt Plans for Virtual Border Fence

In 2005, the federal government launched a plan to build a $6.7 billion virtual fence along the U.S.-Mexico border. But the government has spent only $672 million and plans to cut spending to $574 million next year. The fence was to be completed next year. Now it won't be done before 2014, if at all.

The Associated Press reported:

"Ultimately, the project could be scaled back dramatically, with the government installing virtual fences along a few segments of the nation's 2,000-mile southern boundary but dropping plans for any further expansion, officials said.

" 'The worst that happens is that we have a system which gives us some value but we conclude that it's not worth buying any more of it,' said Mark Borkowski, the government's director of the project at U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

"The first permanent segment of virtual fence -- a 23-mile stretch near Sasabe, Ariz. -- was supposed to be turned over to the Border Patrol by the main contractor, Boeing Co., for testing in January, but the handover has been delayed by problems involving the video recording equipment.

"... Both Boeing and the government officials said the technical problems stemmed from an erroneous belief that the first-of-its-kind virtual fence could be put together relatively quickly by tying together off-the-shelf components that weren't designed to be linked."

Plenty of groups are critical of the Obama administration's cuts to the fence project.

This is an image taken by a classmate/friend of mine, Danielle Kuehnel on the Mexico side of the border in Nogales, Sonora (Summer 2007).