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Kagen Seeks Answers on Border Fence Failure

Press Release

Date: Oct. 2, 2007
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Immigration


KAGEN SEEKS ANSWERS ON BORDER FENCE FAILURE

The Bush Administration's signature high-tech effort to control illegal immigration is a high-dollar failure, and Congressman Steve Kagen is not pleased.

Following numerous reports of problems with the so-called "virtual fence" along the U.S. - Mexican border in Arizona, Kagen fired off a blistering letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

The virtual fence is a surveillance network of software, electronic sensors and radar that is supposed to spot illegal border crossings. The technology is deployed along a 28-mile stretch of the border at a cost of $20 million - yet it cannot distinguish between people, animals and mesquite bushes.

In his letter to Secretary Chertoff, Kagen said that "the administration has failed in its primary duty to secure our nation's borders" and calls on the Boeing Corporation, the defense contractor responsible for the project, "to do the job right or give hard working taxpayers their money back."


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