Border fence
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has put a temporary halt to wasting more taxpayer money on a "virtual fence" along the Southwest border that has been marred by repeated delays and equipment failures.
Secretary Napolitano is freezing funds for the fence while a departmental assessment continues.
The fence was intended as a high-tech plan of towers, cameras, ground sensors and radars that would allow agents to monitor the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border for smuggling and illegal immigrants entering the country.
The entire border was supposed to be covered by the system, which was due to be up and working by last year. After three years and more than $1.1 billion, Boeing Co. has completed only two testing sites in Arizona. Completion originally scheduled for 2011 has been delayed until 2014. The fence has failed to live up to expectations.
It has been plagued by technical glitches and problems with equipment that does not function properly in bad weather. Several reports by the Government Accountability Office have faulted the plan with estimates that it would take several years to expand it to the entire border.
Secretary Napolitano's funding decision came ahead of another report from the accountability office expected to question the integrity of Boeing's tests to evaluate the system.
Richard Stana, director of homeland security and justice issues for the accountability office, said its 14 critical reports show a system that was "overpromised and underdelivered."
President Obama has already proposed slashing money for the program in his next budget — from $800 million authorized by Congress this year to $574 million for fiscal 2011. Secretary Napolitano's freeze means no funds will be spent beyond the current two sections, and $50 million in stimulus money will be redirected to other border needs such as laptops, mobile surveillance, radios and thermal-imaging devices.
A final decision will await another assessment Secretary Napolitano ordered in January, but cost overruns, delays, technical problems and more than a dozen critical reports provide enough cause to stop the project now.
