What Ever Happened to the Virtual Border Fence?

The Houston Chronicle posted a very good piece about the infamous virtual fence along the US-Mexico border. The fence is at the heart of many political issues and mine fields, from immigration and homeland security to budget priorities and the failure of some attempts to compromise in Washington.

The fence has become a white-elephant in some circles and a laughing stock in others, but the cost, reported to be at least $1 billion, is the most salient point of contention. President Obama killed the project.

In the end, the demise of the virtual fence could be traced to technical glitches, domestic politics, turnover in leadership in the program, border landowners’ resistance to a federal takeover and the inability of a newly created Department of Homeland Security to effectively manage its first long-term research and development project.

One version of the plan had the techno-fence up and running by 2012 at a cost of $8 billion. You can see where and why that went.

It’s important because the fence is lauded as an answer to “enforcing the border,” a main plank of the conservative immigration platform.  The problem is that border enforcement, either by virtual or human means, is cost prohibitive and is never brought into the discussion. Aside from that is the argument that solutions to the immigration issue are not to be found along the border because the problem is not at the border.

You can read the piece in it’s entirety HERE.