First no fence,

[JBeukema]

and now no 'virtual', either...

WASHINGTON - The Department of Homeland Security, apparently ready to cut its losses on a so-called invisible fence along the U.S.-Mexico border, has decided not to exercise a one-year option for Boeing to continue work on the troubled multibillion-dollar plan involving high-tech cameras, radar and vibration sensors.

Homeland Security set to pull the plug on electronic border-monitor program

 

[LilOlLady]

The border cannot be secured if they are still allowed to work. They will find a way to cross even if we had the military on the border. The ones the border patrol agents catch and take back across the border keep trying until they get through.
Securing the border first is a joke because he will never be secured. IEDs and piranhas will secure the border.

 

[waltky]

A virtual wall instead of a virtual fence still gonna be just as ineffective...

US-Mexico border: Efforts to build a virtual wall
29 August 2012 - Several previous efforts to create a "virtual wall" across the US-Mexico border have run into technological problems

When darkness descends on the desert separating Mexico from the state of Arizona in the US, the hustle and bustle of illegal immigrants, drug traffickers and patrols intensifies as a game of hide-and-seek is played out among the metal fences and concrete walls. A third-party observes the scene in silence: an army of electronic sensors acting as watch guard in a place where the arm of the law would not otherwise reach. One false move and what seems like simple rocks and stones spring into life, sending alarm signals to a nearby tower. In a matter of seconds radar and infra-red cameras sweep the area in search of intruders. Information travels in microwaves to a control room and human patrol men are sent co-ordinates and images to let them detect whether the subject is armed.

A bittersweet dream

What's just been described is an American dream, or at least the US Border Authorities' dream. For several years it has been using Arizona as a test ground for a so-called "virtual fence". The project was sanctioned by George W Bush's government in 2006 under the name of SBInet. It aimed to install the surveillance technology 3,185 km (1,979 miles) along the border. It was intended to be fully operational by 2011. Instead it became a major headache for both the Bush and Obama administrations. Technical problems plagued the project, and plans to complete it were formally ditched at the start of last year. According to the Department of Homeland Security, taxpayers have spent $1bn (£632m) on the technology which only protects 85km (53 miles) of border. When conditions are windy it sometimes fails to distinguish between a tree and a person, and it is often too slow at relaying the information it has gathered.

It is not the first such fiasco: two earlier attempts to roll out alternative technologies in 1998 and 2005 also failed. Only 1% of the alarm calls they created led to arrests. But the US is not about to throw in the towel. It now wants to invest another $750m in an alternative project called "lntegrated Fixed Towers" (IFT). Based on existing technology it aims to avoid the need to invest in research and development. "The idea is to combine physical infrastructure, like walls and fences, with existing sensor technology to identify what's going on," Mark Borkowski, from the US Customs and Border Protection Department, told the BBC. "So we could distinguish whether someone was loading a weapon or carrying their belongings. One kind of person is obviously more of a threat than the other. "The third element is the (border) officers. We want to increase their effectiveness and use technology to give us an indication if something is going on, and enough information to allow patrols to react accordingly."


Spying rocks

According to the US government, some 7,500 sensors were acquired between 2003 and 2007, to create a movement detection perimeter. Known as Unattended Ground Sensors (UGS), the technology has been around since the 1970s. But advances mean the sensors are now tiny, solar powered and capable of operating for decades. They are backed up by watchtowers fitted with infra-red radars and optical sensors purchased under SBInet before it was cancelled. "The radars can detect activity and set off the cameras," Mr Borkowski explained. "A lot of technologies like UGS are not able to identify what is moving out there. It could be an animal or a person. Thanks to these gadgets we can free the patrols from the task of searching the camera monitors so they can deal with other threats."

Desert phantoms[url]

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-19409682