Troubling reports have emerged about the lack of progress on the high-tech fence that’s supposed to secure this country’s southern border.
A story in the Los Angeles Times this week said the system, which relies on radar images and satellite communication, has debilitating problems and may not be done for another seven years — if at all.
Along with the potential for being a colossal waste of taxpayer money, the technological problems are a devastating blow to hopes for immigration reform.
Americans never will be sold on a comprehensive immigration bill — nor should they be — without first having a secure border.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has ordered an assessment of the multibillion-dollar project that is supposed to stop drug runners and illegal immigrants.
We hope Napolitano and others in the Obama administration move quickly to devise an alternative plan for border security in case contractors are never able to work the glitches out of the system. As it stands, the system is plagued by radar interference, blurry images and satellite time lapses, according to the Times story.
“It was a great idea, but it didn’t work,” Mark Borkowski, Homeland Security’s executive director of the fence program, told the newspaper.
That is a devastating assessment. The contractor for the project is, as you might imagine, more optimistic about the prospects of developing a usable system.
Tim Peters, vice president of Boeing Global Security Systems, told the Times his company was dedicated to fixing the system problems. Peters said a better system would evolve in the future.
Be that as it may, political progress on immigration reform is tightly connected to the success of initiatives to clamp down on illegal border traffic.
Why would Americans or their elected officials support the implementation of, say, a guest worker program or a path to legal status for illegal immigrants if they cannot be convinced of the nation’s ability to control who gets in?
If illegal immigrants can essentially come and go at will, why put your faith in government efforts to manage who can be in this country?
At the moment, illegal immigration is far reduced because the U.S. economic situation has reduced the numbers of jobs available. No jobs, no reason to come here.
But when that changes, and it will, the lure of a better life will reemerge for those looking for opportunities.
This economic downturn was the perfect time to get the high-tech system of electronic surveillance and physical fences in working order.
Unfortunately, it seems as though it will be an opportunity squandered. Napolitano wisely has ordered a reassessment of border security strategy. Immigration reform will not have a chance of becoming reality until the U.S. can better control its borders.
