The government should have had this up by 2008. Will its latest effort succeed? We shall see.
By Brady McCombs
Arizona Daily Star
TUCSON –Homeland Security hopes to begin construction next month on the latest version of its much-maligned and costly “virtual fence” on the U.S.-Mexico border.
More than two years have passed and more than $400 million in taxpayers’ dollars have been spent on the Secure Border Initiative Net (SBInet) project, which still hasn’t produced an effective virtual fence.
The only system operating along the border is the “Project 28” prototype near Sasabe, southwest of Tucson, a grid of nine sensor towers that is still plagued with problems. It will be replaced by the new version – whenever it goes up.
SBInet officials planned to have a pair of new and improved virtual fences up in Arizona by the end of 2008 but the projects were abruptly stopped in August.
“It’s very disheartening,” said Christopher Bronk, a research fellow at the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University, who has closely followed SBInet. “I don’t think we can afford to make those kinds of spends without seeing results.”
