Expensive Virtual Border Fence To Be Replaced
Just two months after Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff accepted the Boeing Co.’s completed $20 million virtual fence along portions of the border with Mexico, the agency announced it will replace the Arizona-Mexico virtual fence with new radios, cameras, towers, and computer software. Customs and Border Protection officials recently acknowledged that the “Project 28” pilot program is not working sufficiently. Border Patrol agents in the Tucson sector agreed with Boeing’s conceptual design of Project 28 but said the final system might have been more useful if they and others had been given an opportunity to provide feedback throughout the process, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report issued in February 2008.
An article about plans to replace the virtual fence is available here. A GAO report on border security, issued in March 2008, is available as a PDF. The GAO report issued in February 2008, detailing some of the problems with the virtual fence program, is available as a PDF.
