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| High-tech border security will be tested |
| 2006-11-07 |
| A 28-mile stretch of Mexican border near Sasabe will serve as the testing ground for the Department of Homeland Security's latest high-tech border security strategy. A Boeing Co.-led team of private companies chose the Tucson Sector because it's been the nation's busiest for illegal entrant traffic since 1998. We're #1! The western desert corridor, where they'll be implementing the eight-month pilot project, was the busiest in the sector in fiscal year 2006, according to Border Patrol officials. "We chose the most difficult, highest-trafficked piece of Arizona because we wanted to take on the challenges that we would have to take on someday," said Brian Seagrave, vice president for border security at Unisys Corp., a technology services and solutions company that will provide the information systems expertise. In September, the federal government awarded Boeing Co. a three-year contract with three one-year options to manage SBInet, a component of the agency's Secure Border Initiative, a multi-pronged approach that will include more staffing, technology, interior enforcement and coordination among law enforcement officials. Boeing Co. will earn $67 million to administer the so-called "Project 28" in Arizona, which it will use to evaluate the SBInet and improve it for implementation along 6,000 miles of northern and southern border. The final costs of the project are unknown, but experts have predicted it could cost about $2 billion over six years. Program managers arrived in Arizona last week to begin planning and are aiming for spring rollout of tower-mounted sensors, cameras, radars and satellite communication that officials believe will allow Border Patrol agents to cover more ground, said Robert Villanueva, Boeing Co. spokesman. "We are going to arm them with data information they never really had before," Villanueva said. The creation of a "virtual fence" might help Border Patrol agents work more efficiently, but the project faces long odds in overcoming deep-rooted causes of illegal immigration that motivate illegal entrants to keep coming despite the fences, technology and agents, said Lee Morgan. Morgan wrote "The Reaper's Line," about his experiences on the U.S.-Mexican border in a 32-year career with the Border Patrol and Immigration and Naturalization Services. "It's probably a better place to put the money rather than building a steel wall that won't work," he said, but added, "The end result is it will always be defeated by desperate people, whatever you put out there." U.S. Customs and Border Protection won't disclose the exact 28-mile stretch involved in the pilot program, citing security reasons. But the Boeing Co. team members were planning to meet with Tohono O'odham Reservation officials, which means it probably stretches west of Sasabe onto the reservation. The rugged terrain won't be easy to tame. Except for a few miles of steel railroad-tie vehicle barriers, the border area near Sasabe is wide open rolling hills with desert trees and bushes marked by a wobbly barbed-wire fence at the international line. The area's gulches, canyons and mountains provide optimum cover for smugglers and illegal entrants and make it difficult for Border Patrol agents and cameras to see everyone moving north. Unlike other areas on the border that have stadium lighting, fencing and cameras on 40-foot towers, this area lacks infrastructure and technology. After a brief slowdown of traffic following the National Guard's arrival in June, traffic is picking up again, locals who live in and around Sasabe said this week. The fresh trash and tracks on one migrant trail Monday backed up that assertion. A bright orange nylon bag with "Tortilleria Rosgar" lay on the ground amid heaps of plastic water jugs, tuna cans and discarded clothes in a gulch. One rancher who lives about three-quarters of a mile from the border west of Sasabe doesn't think technology is the answer. "Is this tower going to march over and arrest a bunch of illegal aliens?" asked Roy Isaman, 56, who owns El Mirador Ranch west of Sasabe. "Are you kidding me? You need boots on the ground, period." Please explain to him the concept of force multipliers. The SPI net can be successful with the additional agents Customs and Border Protection plans to bring aboard, said Seagrave. In May, President Bush requested 6,000 additional agents by 2008. So far, Congress has allocated funding for 1,500. In this first phase in Arizona, project managers will focus on towers, sensors and cameras. Fences and vehicles could be included later in the project's implementation, Villanueva said. Boeing Co. isn't committed to placing only technology along the entire border. "We are going to assess the border foot by foot, mile by mile, to determine the appropriate asset to be deployed," Villanueva said. Boeing hopes to give 40 percent of subcontracted work to small and minority-owned companies, Villanueva said. Unisys Corp. will parcel out at least 30 percent of its subcontracted work to border-state small businesses, Seagrave said. And 45% of the work will be done by illegals... Congress has instructed the General Accountability Office to monitor the implementation of the SPI net based on a history of poor oversight, but it's too early to make any judgments yet, said Randolph C. Hite, director of information technology architecture and systems issues at the General Accountability Office. If the project begins slowing illegal immigration, it could cause unrest among Especially if the Democrats seize control of the House, in which case this project goes the way of the SST. Members of the Boeing Co. assessment team are familiarizing themselves with the border and meeting with people and agencies with whom they'll be working, including officials on the Tohono O'odham Reservation, which covers 75 miles of border, Villanueva said. Despite their skeptics, Boeing Co. team members are confident their work will make a difference. The SBInet will allow Border Patrol agents to monitor more ground and detect, apprehend and classify illegal entrants more efficiently, Seagrave said. "If there is certainty of apprehension that gets communicated, the volume of the illegal entries will drop substantially," Seagrave said. |
| Posted by:Jackal |