By Mickey McCarter
Texas Insider Report: Washington D.C. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano should see the virtual fence in Arizona in action before making a decision about
the billion-dollar programs fate challenged the president of a prominent border organization.
According to accounts from various sources Napolitano has never returned to her home state to see the Secure Border Initiative (SBInet) as it actually works today while contemplating the future of the program under review since January 2010.
SBInet under contract to the Boeing Co. is currently in the latest of several one-month contract extensions through Jan. 17 while the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) weighs its future.
But no decision on the program would be complete if Napolitano and Alan Bersin commissioner of US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) did not visit the system in person asserted Nelson Balido president of the Border Trade Alliance (BTA).
I find it extremely difficult to understand why the secretary or the commissioner has not been out there to see it for themselves Balido told Homeland Security Today. They are making a billion-dollar decision on something they dont need to see? For Napolitano its her home state. Maybe she should go out there and check it out.
Balido checked it out himself along with several BTA board members last November drafting a commentary that appeared in Homeland Security Today afterward.
In explaining the story behind his commentary Balido revealed BTA pressed for an examination of the system for months after fielding questions as to whether or not it was any good. As a trusted CBP partner BTA enjoyed frontline access to the system inspecting its operations and hearing directly from Border Patrol agents as to how they view the system.
I was really surprised Balido described. I didnt expect to receive the positive response and positive outlook from this
program that we received from the Border Patrol agents that were there. We had heard so much negative stuff about the program that it almost skews your thinking.
I was pleasantly surprised when they said this is the kind of program that we need to make sure our agents come back alive he added.
BTA members witnessed a presentation that demonstrated agents intercepting drug runners and economic migrants in real situations Balido recounted. Agents expressed excitement over the enhanced situational awareness the SBInet common operating picture provided them. They could send the appropriate number of agents with the appropriate amount of armaments to respond to a threat they could clearly see long before they actually engaged it he said.
Balido agreed that SBInet continues to labor under bad publicity garnered by its prototype system known as Project 28 (or P28) which was deactivated last fall. Project 28 which presented DHS leadership with a proof of concept involved commercial off-the-shelf technology that was not designed to work in adverse desert conditions Balido said.
There is no question that P28 had some issues Balido remarked. Any time you are going to build a brand new piece of equipment its not like going to Best Buy and buying a mass market Sony Blu ray player a Sony flatscreen and a Sony receiver and then plugging them in. Those are designed to plug and play inside the home in that environment. I dont think anything was designed to plug and play literally in the desert and sandstorms and the heat it would face.
Given how the system performs today it is clearly an asset to Border Patrol Balido contended. Scrapping the system at this stage when DHS has invested a
half billion dollars in development and nearly another half billion in rolling the system out along with physical fencing could set border security efforts back years he lamented.
We dont endorse companies Balido said of the Boeing contract. We endorse new technologies to protect our Border Patrol to secure our borders and to improve legitimate commerce. We always have endorsed new technologies to help increase the efficiencies of the human element not only between the ports of entry but also at the ports of entry.
As SBInet appears to ably support the mission of the Border Patrol DHS and CBP should sit down with Boeing and hash out a plan to move forward Balido declared.
Weve heard that there havent been good checks and balances as part of the program he said.
Lets set down a good plan and put some checks and balances in place now that weve learned from mistakes and lets move forward. Lets not scrap a program that has cost the taxpayer nearly a billion dollars to start over and go through years of procurement only to end up with the same thing that we have now.
