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http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/special/immigration/7260409.htmlFeds scrapping 'virtual' border fence work
High-tech security project ending after nearly $1 billion spent
By STEWART M. POWELL
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is preparing to scrap plans to extend the high-tech "virtual" border fence along vast stretches of the 1,969-mile U.S.-Mexico border, ending a troubled and politically contentious security measure inaugurated in 2006 by then-President George W. Bush, the Houston Chronicle learned Friday.
The decision, expected to be announced shortly by the Department of Homeland Security, comes after federal authorities poured nearly $1 billion into a four-year, post-9/11 demonstration project to show that state-of-the-art remote cameras and ground sensors could help U.S. Border Patrol agents intercept undocumented immigrants, drug smugglers or potential terrorists surreptitiously crossing the border.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, a former governor of Arizona keenly familiar with the technical problems afflicting the project, first signaled plans to scrub the "invisible fence" with a series of internal decisions in recent weeks that shifted the year-to-year contract with the prime contractor to a month-to-month contract due to expire on Nov. 21. ....
The watchdog congressional agency recently concluded that Boeing, the prime contractor for the Secure Border Initiative network, had not provided accurate updates on progress to the administration and the DHS had provided inadequate oversight of Boeing, leading to "costly rework" efforts. ....
Two sites in Arizona
The 53 miles of high-tech surveillance equipment along the border at two locations in Arizona were designed to augment nearly 700 miles of pedestrian fencing and vehicle barriers built by the Bush administration and finished by the Obama administration along the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.
Customs and Border Protection has completed construction of 649 miles of the 652 miles of pedestrian fencing and vehicle barriers authorized by Congress. ....
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