March 05, 2008

Real border fence not built, virtual fence on hold

A border fence wouldn't be necessary if we could discredit those politicians and others who support illegal immigration. And, it's currently being used by John McCain and was used by others such as Mike Huckabee as an example of how they were going to crack down on illegal immigration. However, from this:

Over a year ago, Congress passed a law to spend over $7 billion to build a fence to secure our Mexican border. Less than two weeks ago, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced at a news conference that a high-tech "virtual fence" project on part of the U.S. border with Mexico was finally ready for service, and that the technology that was a substitute for an actual physical fence — you know, cement, barbed wire, watch towers, moats.

...But only five days later, the media reported that the Bush administration has scaled back plans to quickly build a virtual fence along the U.S.-Mexico border, delaying completion of that first 28-mile phase by at least three years and shifting away from a network of tower-mounted sensors and surveillance gear.

Technical problems in the same 28-mile project that Mr. Chertoff had personally vouchsafed just five days before were cited by Homeland Security Department officials as the reason for the three-year delay — which, let me remind you, the secretary had said just five days before it was ready to go operational...

I am not by nature a believer in large political conspiracies - noting that usually events can be explained by merely a conspiracy of idiots against the forces of reason. And so perhaps in this case, too...

Posted to Immigration2008a at March 5, 2008 10:59 AM