High-Tech Border Surveillance: A Costly, Buggy, Blundering Flop

The Obama administration's recent surprise decision to suspend new work on a multibillion-dollar high-tech border control system -- the third attempted since 1997 -- raises further questions about the government's use of computer networks and sensors in an effort to seal the border with Mexico.

As part of a broad illegal immigration crackdown called the Secure Border Initiative, a seamless "virtual fence" launched in 2005 was supposed to be up and running by last year. Among other things, the project known as SBInet called for a vast surveillance system along the 2,000-mile Southwestern border capable of detecting immigrants, drug traffickers, and potential terrorists as they attempted to cross into the United States.

But at the current slow pace of construction, SBInet would take decades to complete. Only a 28-mile-long prototype is fully up and running in Arizona, to mixed reviews.

In March, shortly before the House Homeland Security Committee met to discuss SBInet, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced that $50 million in planned stimulus spending on the project had been diverted to other border protection initiatives. That marked a sharp turnabout for the Obama administration, which had professed strong support for the effort.

Napolitano, a former Arizona governor who backed using such technological solutions on the border during her nomination process, said that SBInet "has been plagued with cost overruns and missed deadlines." It also has been marked by technical problems and poor government planning, according to congressional testimony and independent investigations by watchdogs like the Government Accountability Office.

The lead contractor on the project, Boeing Co., has earned $615 million so far. Company officials declined requests from the Center for Investigative Reporting to comment on SBInet. Officials from U.S. Customs and Border Protection also would not answer questions about the project.

The problems with SBInet represent what critics call the federal government's history of overreliance on speculative technology sold at great cost to taxpayers. Washington has spent some $800 million on SBInet. When earlier failed border technology projects are included, the price tag jumps to $1.1 billion, according to figures released during congressional hearings.

Some lawmakers now are questioning whether SBInet should be abandoned.

"At least $800 million so far has been wasted," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., fumed in an April hearing. "Think of how that money could have been spent to try to improve our border security. There's been a lack of oversight; there's been a lack of accountability, and by most reports, this virtual fence has been a complete failure."

Backers say that bugs in SBInet technology are being ironed out and the prototype is beginning to produce results, including the apprehension of intruders. Still, the continued march of illegal immigrants into the United States, despite the Secure Border Initiative, has undoubtedly set back efforts at comprehensive immigration reform and perhaps will lead other states to follow the example of Arizona, where a tough new immigration law has triggered protests across the country.

Years in the Making

High-tech border surveillance took on a new sense of urgency in the wake of the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Concerns about immigration and national security merged in a campaign for an array of cameras, sensors, and computer technology that would alert border protection officials when intruders were detected.

It wasn't the first time such an approach was tried. In 1997, immigration officials from the Clinton administration attempted a network of thousands of infrared, seismic, and magnetic sensors combined with surveillance cameras. The idea wasn't far from SBInet: leverage technology to extend the reach of border patrol agents and save the government money on personnel costs.