We can have people sitting at consoles at March Air Force Base in Riverside flying remote control aircraft on the other side of the world, looking down to target and destroy bad guys, but we can’t make electronic surveillance on our southern border work. That seems to be the message from the Obama administration.
The Houston (Tex.) Chronicle reports that the Obama Administration has ordered a reassessment of the whole idea of installing a virtual fence along the 2,000 mile border. And, it what looks like a signal of things to come, the Presidents just released proposed budget contains a $ 189 million cut in the budget for this project.
The article reports that the first permanent segment of the so-called virtual fence, 23 miles in Arizona, was supposed to be turned over to the Border Patrol in January by the main contractor, Boeing. That has been delayed by reported problems with the video recording equipment.
“The original concept approved by Congress was to cost $ 6.7 billion, and was to secure the border with a virtual fence of cameras, grounds sensors and radar” reports the Chronicle. The project was launched in2005 amidst a growing public and political cry to control our southern border to reduce or eliminate drug trafficking and human traffickers, and was to be supplemented by 650 miles of real fences and thousands of new Border Patrol agents.
There have been numerous technological problems with this project as it was developed by Boeing. Many have been solved, so maybe this latest one – a problem with recording equipment – can be solved too. But, does the will to see this project to a successful completion exist? The budget cut proposed by Obama may be a signal of impending death.
Thank goodness our government has had the will to see the development and deployment of live action drones around the world to go after those who would harm us. Maybe the answer to what we need along our border can be found at nearby March Air Force Base.
I like the picture, OBNO. Are there little Mexican kids on the other side of that fence?
While I favor enforcement of laws regarding employing undocumented persons and not providing welfare to undocumented persons. I have never thought that the fence idea would work.
The way I see it it would only increase the profits for those who make money on helping undocumented people get here.
Micro loans to small family busineses in Mexico and other poor central America Counties to help create more and better jobs there I believe is the ultimate answer.
That in coordination with legalization,taxation and control of drugs that are currently illegal would reduce the profits for the drug cartels.
No Vern, its guys with big guns called drug cartels.. Kids are not near the border unless the parents are running through it!
Re: “Micro loans to small family busineses in Mexico and other poor central America Counties to help create more and better jobs there I believe is the ultimate answer.”
And eliminating NAFTA. Under free trade agreements, corprations can do whatever they want in Latin America. Environmental laws don’t apply to them so they can pollute the soil and ground water making certain areas uninhabitable. Google Smithfield Farms and their fecal lagoons.
Monsanto, an agribusiness corporation, is making it illegal to use non-GMO seeds. So now farmers will have buy genetically modified seeds that are sterile after one use. That will put local farmers out of business.
I could go on, but the root of the problem is NAFTA and the war on drugs. We need to chnage our policy with regard to Mexico and the rest of Latin America.