US Scraps Virtual Fence Along Mexican Border 437
Pickens writes "The Arizona Republic reports that the federal government has officially cancelled its multibillion-dollar plan to build a virtual fence along the border with Mexico as Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano disclosed in a congressional briefing that the program known as SBInet was costing too much and achieving too little. 'SBInet cannot meet its original objective of providing a single, integrated border-security technology solution,' says Napolitano. Boeing was hired in 2006 to develop the system under a three-year federal contract with cost projections for full build-out as high as $8 billion but efforts were plagued by delays, glitches, budget increases and congressional criticism. Napolitano has ordered Customs and Border Protection to launch a more modest and geographically tailored effort using SBInet funds and existing technology such as mobile-surveillance systems, unmanned aircraft, thermal-imaging devices and remote-video surveillance with proven elements of SBInet including stationary radar and infrared-sensor towers. SBInet cost nearly $1 billion for development along 53 miles of Arizona border."
Like leaving the front door open (Score:1, Insightful)
Come on in.
Get free food, and my wallet is over there for you to raid.
Take it all, and leave behind a mess in my home, paleskin stranger.
Why, oh why.. (Score:3, Insightful)
Can't we at least get a better class of pork-barrel projects to funnel money to defense contractors? I'd appreciate getting at least some value for the money.
No technical remedies for social problems (Score:5, Insightful)
I think i have an obsession for technical solutions. I can't walk by any new gadget without thinking "That could solve this problem" and ending up buying most of them. But in the end even i learned, that for social problems, you need social solutions. If you try to solve social problems with technology, you will always fail. It's also true the other way round: you cannot solve technological problems with social measures. Unless one accepts that, failures like this fence will happen again and again.
CU, Martin
Re:The Virtual Fence was always a dumb idea (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:The Virtual Fence was always a dumb idea (Score:5, Insightful)
If a portion of the money ($1 billion for 53 miles) was used to create jobs in Mexico, it would likely do far more to stop the tide.
But this isn't about logic, it's about feelings, and reactionaries who would rather spend money preventing and punishing illegal immigrants than giving anything to said aliens.
Re:Why, oh why.. (Score:2, Insightful)
It's a lot better for a politician to look like they care than for them to look like they don't care period.
Regardless, a real fence won't keep people out anymore than a lock will keep a thief out, or a password will keep a hacker out. The real problem here is the lack of legal methods of immigration from Mexico, which is not entirely the US's fault, in fact, from my understanding, it's pretty much the Mexican government that makes immigration nearly impossible, while the US government makes it difficult.
Aside from all this, the trek that the illegal Mexican immigrants typically take is a harder path than most anyone on
Re:Like leaving the front door open (Score:5, Insightful)
An inaccurate comparison as closing a door is easy and hermetically sealing thousand of miles of border is impossible.
Look at the problems the Israelis have securing their Gaza border against tunneling.
Consider that they are a highly motivated and technically sophisticated people with a much,much shorter border to guard.
Border sealing is distraction and noise, either fines and enforcement make employing illegals an economically bad decision or the status quo continues no matter how much money is wasted at the border or how many hispanics are harassed in the streets.
Re:The Virtual Fence was always a dumb idea (Score:5, Insightful)
Not specifically because they're illegal, no.
Actually, I'd wager that the burden on the health care system from indigent ER abuse from inner-city black populations in Atlanta or Los Angeles is worse than the burden on our ER's from Mexicans.
And, if you'd offer these folks a path to citizenship, they'd be more able to participate in the economy and pay for health care like everyone else.
There's an excellent hospital near where I live (the place that they're treating Gabrielle Giffords, actually), and the last time I was there (in the ER at night) it was mostly drunk fraternity/sorority members, not Mexicans.
Re:Like leaving the front door open (Score:4, Insightful)
We don't need any more people.
Maybe that were the exact thoughts of the Indians about your grand-parents.
Re:The Virtual Fence was always a dumb idea (Score:4, Insightful)
Don't leave it at home?
Or ensure that whoever you left it in the care of (family member, gun club...) can present it for you?
If you are unwilling to assume responsibility for a device intended solely to kill human beings, you shouldn't have one.
Or they could just prosecute the employers. (Score:5, Insightful)
I know, I know. That's crazy talk. Why would either party go after rich and powerful people, when they can just spend the sheeple's hard-earned cash? Otherwise they might have to spend it on health care, education, roads, or something else that might actually be useful.
Re:fucking Mexicans! (Score:4, Insightful)
Because what you're describing is commonly called murder, and is illegal under pretty much every law in the world, national and international (just as it should be)?
If you're really serious about this, your sig seems quite apt.
Re:So... why did it fail? (Score:5, Insightful)
You know, when you start coming up with ideas reminiscent of the Berlin Wall (automatic machine guns rather than claymores, not quite as tall, and a larger space between them), you might consider that you're working for the wrong side.
Re:The Virtual Fence was always a dumb idea (Score:4, Insightful)
If you are unwilling to assume responsibility for a device intended solely to kill human beings, you shouldn't have one.
Damn right. Guns' intended purpose, and therefore only purpose, is violence and murder. Just like torrent clients can only be used for piracy, jailbreaking can only be used for hacking, laser pointers can only be used for blinding people, and cough syrup can only be used for making crystal meth.
In fact, I shot three blind, meth-addled hipster pirates just on my morning commute yesterday.
Re:The Virtual Fence was always a dumb idea (Score:5, Insightful)
If you offer them a path to citizenship, you just make a mockery of the legislative system-- it ends up saying "Dont do this, but if you really want to you can, and you wont be punished for it". Illegal immigration is illegal (duh), and rewarding it encourages more of it.
Youre better off reforming immigration laws than undermining the legal system.