An ambitious, $6.7 billion government project to secure nearly the entire Mexican border with a "virtual fence" of cameras, ground sensors and radar is in jeopardy after a string of technical glitches and delays, and this week President Obama proposed cutting $189 million from the venture.Having spent $672 million so far with little to show for it, Washington has ordered a reassessment of the whole idea.
Ultimately, the project could be scaled back dramatically, with the government installing virtual fences along a few segments of the nation's 2,000-mile southern boundary but dropping plans for any further expansion, officials said.
"The worst that happens is that we have a system which gives us some value but we conclude that it's not worth buying any more of it," said Mark Borkowski, the government's director of the project at U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
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They've blown $672 million on this so far??
ReplyDeleteImagine how much REAL fence-- double with razor wire-- that money would have bought.
Add some dogs between the fence rows, and you'd have something a lot more intimidating than cameras and sensors...
Even if you had to use the steel panels, $672mil would have bought quite a few.
Let's quit playing around and get serious.
(Are you there, Frank?)