U.S. Grows An Industrial Complex Along The Border

National Public Radio September 12, 2012 by Ted Robbins The United States' southern border bristles with technology and manpower designed to catch illegal immigrants and drug smugglers. Since 1986, the government has spent hundreds of billions of dollars on fences, aircraft, detention centers and agents. But even as federal budgets shrink and illegal immigration ebbs, experts say that there's no end in sight for the growth of the border-industrial complex. A Growing Investment On The Border Stocked with equipment like Blackhawk helicopters — hundreds of aircraft fly daily missions — much of the southern border has grown into an industrial complex that is fed by the government and supplied by defense contractors and construction companies. The infrastructure includes a border fence that in some places has been built and rebuilt several times. And up to 25 miles north of the border, towers, sensors and permanent checkpoints spread across the landscape. The border-control efforts have spread even farther into the country, into cities where Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents pursue illegal immigrants and visa violators. Nationally, it extends to roughly 250 immigrant detention centers. Some of those centers are run by the government, some by private prison corporations. The government spends an estimated $5 million each day to house detainees awaiting deportation. All of this effort takes manpower; roughly 80,000 federal employees work in immigration enforcement. "It is safe to say that there has been more money, manpower, infrastructure, technology, invested in the border-protection mission in the last three years than ever before," says Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. Since the last comprehensive immigration reform was passed by Congress in 1986, creating this industrial complex focused on the southern border has been a bipartisan affair. And it really picked up after Sept. 11, 2001: Nearly every piece of security legislation since then has contained add-ons for immigration enforcement. If you add up the budgets of the responsible agencies since 1986, the bill is $219 billion in today's dollars — roughly the entire cost of the space shuttle program. Unlike the space shuttle program, though, there's no end in sight. The chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Kentucky Republican Hal Rogers, agrees it's going to be hard to pull back spending. "It is a sort of a mini industrial complex syndrome that has set in there," he says. "And we're going to have to guard against it every step of the way." High-Tech Towers That Cover 53 Miles Arguably, there hasn't been much guarding so far. Take, for example, a tall steel tower teeming with devices in the desert southwest of Tucson. "This has sensor responders on it, as well as a communications package," says Border Patrol Agent Brent Cagen, "which is a radar, day and night cameras, infrared, laser technology." The tower is part of SBI-Net (the SBI stands for Secure Border Initiative), which was supposed to be a high-tech virtual fence across the entire 2,100-mile border with Mexico. Instead, the towers cover just 53 miles. Homeland Security pulled the plug on the project after five years and almost a billion dollars. Mark Borkowski, who's in charge of technology for Customs and Border Protection, started his job during the SBI-Net debacle. "Frankly, in my view it was a disaster," he says. "And I ended up, as it turns out, being the person who ended up having to try to manage our way through that disaster." Boeing Corp. built the towers for SBI-Net, but the system was ineffective. Some components weren't designed to work in the desert. "There were issues with heat," Borkowski says. "Sometimes it was just poor design of cabling." It was actually the third time this had happened with high-tech towers. In 1997, there was ISIS — the Integrated Surveillance Intelligence System. That was scrapped in 2003 because the technology didn't work. Then came America's Shield, also scrapped. The federal government hasn't given up. Right now, it's going over proposals to build hundreds of new towers. Many of the same defense contractors involved before have bid again: Raytheon, Lockheed and Boeing. Despite the problems, members of both parties insist the massive spending on the border buildup is working. "Immigration numbers down to 1971 levels; violent crime either down or flat; seizures of contraband up," says Napolitano, slapping the table in her office. "Those are material elements of proof, to show that we have got our arms around the border issue. And we are sustaining that." Demographics Of Immigration But there are also bigger forces at work: economics and demographics. For the last 30 years, Douglas Massey, a sociologist at Princeton University, has been studying Mexican immigration patterns. He says fewer people are crossing illegally because the American economy collapsed in 2008, taking away the job magnet pulling people here. And those who were already here stayed. "Unauthorized migrants, very rationally, stopped crossing the border," he says. Meanwhile, the economy has been improving in Mexico. And the birthrate there has fallen sharply. Fewer working-age people are available to come here and fewer need to. "Personally I think the big boom in Mexican migration is now over," Massey concludes. If that's true — and a number of experts think it may be — the U.S. is at a crossroads on border spending and strategy. "DHS is now dealing with the same challenge the entire government's facing, and that's the realization that our budget is hemorrhaging from red ink," Rogers says. "And we've got to cut spending before it's too late." For the first time in its history, the Department of Homeland Security will get less money in its upcoming budget than it did the year before. But Arizona Democratic Rep. Raul Grijalva says there's a lot of pressure from Congress and lobbyists to maintain, and even move forward, with programs. "There's a mutual dependency that's been created in the industry and Homeland Security," he says. "And that industry ... is starting to become a very, very powerful lobby up here." There are still calls for more infrastructure, more technology and more manpower to feed the border-industrial complex. http://www.npr.org/2012/09/12/160758471/u-s-grows-an-industrial-complex-along-the-border

U.S. eyes fencing along Canadian border

Globe and Mail
September 29, 2011
by Jim Bronskill

The United States is looking at building fences along the border with Canada to help keep out terrorists and other criminals.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency has proposed the use of “fencing and other barriers” on the 49th parallel to manage “trouble spots where passage of cross-border violators is difficult to control.”

The border service is also pondering options including a beefed-up technological presence through increased use of radar, sensors, cameras, drones and vehicle scanners. In addition, it might continue to improve or expand customs facilities at ports of entry.

The agency considered but ruled out the possibility of hiring “significantly more” U.S. Border Patrol agents to increase the rate of inspections, noting staffing has already risen in recent years.

The proposals are spelled out in a new draft report by the border service that examines the possible environmental impact of the various options over the next five to seven years.

Customs and Border Protection is inviting comment on the options and plans a series of public meetings in Washington and several U.S. border communities next month. It will then decide which ideas to pursue.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano noted last month the challenges of monitoring the vast, sparsely populated northern border region. She stressed manpower, but also a greater reliance on technology.

Ironically, the moves come as Canada and the U.S. try to finalize a perimeter security arrangement that would focus on continental defences while easing border congestion. It would be aimed at speeding passage of goods and people across the Canada-U.S. border, which has become something of a bottleneck since the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Relatively speaking, Washington has focused more energy and resources on tightening security along the border with Mexico than at the sprawling one with Canada.

But that may be changing.

A U.S. Government Accountability Office report recently warned that only a small portion of the border with Canada is properly secure. It said U.S. border officers control just 50 kilometres of the 6,400-kilometre boundary.

The Customs and Border Protection report says while fences have been a big element in deterring unauthorized crossings of the U.S.-Mexican border, “it is unlikely that fencing will play as prominent a role” on the northern border, given its length and terrain that varies from prairie to forest.

However, the agency would use fencing and other barriers such as trenches to control movement and sometimes delay people trying to sneak across the border, increasing the likelihood they could be caught, says the report.

It doesn’t provide details about what the fences might look like, but suggests they would be designed to blend into the environment and “complement the natural landscape.”

The approach would also involve upgrading roadways and trails near the border.

“The lack of roads or presence of unmaintained roads impedes efficient surveillance operations,” says the report. “Improving or expanding the roadway and trail networks could improve mobility, allowing agents to patrol more miles each day and shortening response times.”

Over the last two years, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has already made what it calls “critical security improvements along the northern border,” adding inspectors at the ports of entry and Border Patrol agents between ports, as well as modernizing land crossings.

Nearly 3,800 Customs and Border Protection officers scrutinize people and goods at crossings. The number of Border Patrol agents working between crossings along the northern parallel has increased 700 per cent since Sept. 11, 2001. And some three dozen land ports of entry are being modernized.

Unmanned U.S. aircraft patrol about 1,500 kilometres along the northern border from Washington to Minnesota as well as more than 300 kilometres of the Canadian border around New York state and Lake Ontario.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/us-eyes-fencing-along-canadian-border/article2184300/

Man Climbs Over New U.S./Mexico Border Fence

KFOX 14
July 6, 2011
by Ric DuPont

EL PASO, Texas -- An El Paso resident Joshua Jordan was taking pictures of the new U.S./Mexico border fence from the passenger's seat of a car while driving down Paisano Drive. Jordan said most of his out-of-state friends don’t believe how big the fence is. Jordan got more than he bargained for when his camera captured a man climbing over the fence and dropping down to the street below. The man had used a tall ladder on the Mexican side of the fence to get to the top.

The next thing Jordan saw was a second man climb up the ladder, with a bicycle, and throw the bicycle over the fence to his friend. Jordan made a U-turn to see if the man was hurt, but he saw the man riding away on the bike.

The fence is about 16 feet tall, and in some places it's even taller. The holes in the fence are too small for most people to put their fingers in and get a grip to climb.

Supervising Border Patrol agent Demetrio Guerra said between good old-fashioned border patrol work and video surveillance, agents were able to catch and detain the man who climbed over the fence.

"Just because you don't see Border Patrol out on the fence line doesn't mean we're not being vigilant and watching the border," Guerra said.

Guerra said the fence was built as a tool to assist border patrol agents and buy them more time to catch up to a person in some cases. Guerra said he’s heard of other cases where people have climbed the new fence using screw drivers and hooks.

http://www.kfoxtv.com/news/28467036/detail.html

Bigger, stronger border barrier for Nogales

Nogales International
April 15, 2011
by Jonathan Clark

The dilapidated landing-mat border fence running through central Nogales is slowly coming down.

For the past two weeks, construction crews have been building a taller, stronger and more firmly embedded barrier that by July will cover the entire 2.8 miles of terrain now fronted by the landing-mat fence.

Speaking at a media event Wednesday near the Mariposa Port of Entry, Sabri Dikman, acting patrol agent in charge at the Nogales Border Patrol Station, called the change a “great moment for the Border Patrol.”

“It’s significant for the Border Patrol and the safety level of our agents, as well as the ability for us to do our job and secure the border in Nogales,” he said.

The old barrier, which stands 8-12 feet with no below-ground footer, was the best solution available when it was constructed in 1994, Dikman said. But it’s also relatively easy to climb over and burrow under, and its solid-panel design has proven dangerous for agents who can’t see what’s on the other side.

Agents at the Nogales Station suffered 300 assaults during the fiscal year that ended last Sept. 30 – most of them rock-throwings that happened in the vicinity of the old fence, Dikman said. And Border Patrol spokesman Andy Adame said the local station has recorded at least 100 more assaults since Oct. 1, with all but one occurring in the 2.8-mile stretch through central Nogales.

The new, bollard-style fencing is higher – 18-30 feet, depending on the terrain – and is anchored in place by a concrete footer that extends up to 8 feet into the ground to thwart burrowing. And because its design involves a series of interconnected tubes, agents can now see through it to identify any dangers lurking to the south.

“You can look through and see that no one is over there, or what’s going to come at you in the next few seconds,” said Agent Eric Cantu as he pointed to a section of bollard fencing. “So it’s pretty obvious why we’re doing this.”

The concrete-filled steel tubes that comprise the fence would take at least 15 minutes to cut through, said Mike Tatusko, projective executive for Granite Construction, the Watsonville, Calif.-based contractor building the barrier. That time frame, along with the noise and sparks that a cut-through effort would create, gives the Border Patrol a good opportunity to respond.

As for climbers, a 5-foot high, south-facing metal sheet attached to the top of the fence should serve as a deterrent, Tatusko said. “Even if you shimmy up to the top 5 feet, there’s nothing to grab hold of,” he said.

The poles themselves will be topped with pyramid-shaped caps to discourage perching, he said.

Once the $11.6-million project is completed, the new fencing will connect to similar barriers built in recent years to the east and west of town to create a solid 12.5-mile fortification, Dikman said. And with better security in the central area, the Nogales Station will be able to take agents out of the downtown area and deploy them to outlying trouble spots.

“Once we have the bollard fencing up and we can actually see the south side and what’s approaching the fence, we should be able to move some of our personnel and our technology to the further, more remote areas to the east and west,” Dikman said.

Doubters

The project also has its skeptics and critics. Jesus Quintanar, an engineer representing the Mexican section of the International Boundary and Water Commission, could think of little positive to say about the new fence as he observed its construction at the Mariposa site on Wednesday. “The old one was ugly, and this one isn’t pretty, either,” he said.

At least, Quintanar said, he could certify that the barrier is being built on U.S. soil, thus averting an embarrassment like one in 2007 when the U.S. accidentally constructed 1.5 miles of new border fencing in Mexican territory south of New Mexico, and then spent $3 million to fix the problem.

From an engineering perspective, Quintanar said his biggest concern is the concrete footer and the possibility that it could cause flooding during monsoon season by blocking runoff.

“We have our doubts,” he said. “According to what they’ve shown us, it complies with the specifications for the crossing of water flows. But once leaves and other things start to accumulate, that’s when the problems could start – and problems not just for Mexico, but for the United States as well.”

Tatusko said the design takes runoff into account by adding channels to the footer in areas where the fence crosses an arroyo. The channels will be covered by gates that allow normal drainage, but that can be opened in case of debris buildup and blockage.

The new fence is also troubling to Gustavo Lozano of the Nogales-based Fronteras Desiguales, a group that advocates for the rights of border residents. The project, he said, is another example of the increasingly costly, militaristic approach to border security that has done little to thwart drug trafficking or drug-related violence in Mexico. Lozano said more attention should be paid to the economic causes of border-related problems, and his group would like to see the U.S. and Mexican governments abandon their top-down approach and instead involve community organizations in creating solutions.

As for the bigger, more permanent border barrier making its way through the center of Nogales, Lozano said it would send an unfriendly message to our neighbors to the south who regularly cross legally into the U.S. for social visits or to pump much-needed revenue into the local economy.

“I think it has a clear, negative impact on people,” he said. “You know, ‘I’m building a fence between me and my neighbor and I don’t want to see his face anymore.’ That’s the message that it’s sending to regular people across the line.

“It’s a very hostile message, especially here in what we call ‘Ambos Nogales,’” he said. “We think of the two Nogaleses as very unified, as one community separated by a border. But when our government comes up with crazy and stupid ideas like a bigger fence, it’s clearly sending a message to regular people.”

The project

Two Granite Construction crews are working simultaneously on the fence: one starting at the far eastern end of town, the other on the west. As new sections go up, the old fence is taken down and the sheet metal is salvaged for scrap. In the Mariposa area, the new fence is being built approximately 50 feet south of the old one, and the landing mats aren’t dismantled until the new barrier is firmly in place in front of it.

The Border Patrol is providing security for the workers on the north side of the fence, while Mexican authorities are chipping in on the south, Dikman said.

In addition to the fence, the crews are also building a 25-foot-wide, all-weather road to give the Border Patrol better access, Tatusko said. During the height of the construction, Tatusko said he expects to have 80 workers on his team – almost all of them from the Tucson and Santa Cruz County areas.

Eventually, the east and west work crews will meet in the middle – the downtown commercial area – where construction efforts will likely become trickier, Tatusko said.

The challenges of the urban environment, he said, include working in confined areas; dealing with overhead and underground utilities; and managing vehicle and pedestrian traffic.

When the crews reach the downtown, they’ll replace both the gate at the railroad crossing and the landing-mat fence. And while messages at Wednesday’s media event were mixed as to whether the barrier between the DeConcini and Morley border crossings – the peach-toned concrete wall with see-through metal screens – would be replaced as well, Adame, the Border Patrol spokesman, said Thursday that it would be left alone.

Once the new bollard fencing replaces the landing-mat barrier elsewhere in the downtown, Dikman said, local residents may notice it has benefits in addition to improved security.

He pointed to a Cronkite News Service story in the April 8 edition of the Nogales International, in which West International Street resident Edward Holler lamented the changes that had come after the landing-mat fence went up in front of his house in the 1990s. “I couldn’t see Mexico anymore,” Holler told reporter Channing Turner. “I couldn’t hear the music as well, and I couldn’t see the parades.”

The new fence should help restore such fond sights and sounds at the same time that it’s improving visibility and safety for Border Patrol agents, Dikman said.

“It kind of adds a little transparency to the border,” he said.

http://www.nogalesinternational.com/articles/2011/04/15/news/doc4da8662fe0962899521184.txt

Border Patrol Plans Three New Projects in Border Field State Park

Imperial Beach Patch
February 11, 2011
by Greg Graziosi

The Border Patrol held an open house Wednesday evening at the Marina Vista Community Center to exhibit three renovation projects slated to begin this year.

Greg Gephart, program manager for tactical infrastructure for the U.S. Border Patrol, was on-hand to explain the nature of the projects, the goals desired and the background, environmental and design details of the undertakings.

If the changes are approved, the Border Patrol will begin a proposal period in March, then sign deals with private contractors for Friendship Park projects by April.

The Border Patrol wants to see construction for all three projects start this summer.

The Replacement of the Friendship Park Pedestrian Border Fence

The Friendship Park project drew a great deal of attention at the open house, as it directly affects visitors to the park, and in part due to a press conference held by the Friends of Friendship Park on the lawn of the community center Wednesday evening to promote an alternative re-design.

The proposed changes to Friendship Park—a binational park where people on both sides of the border can meet one another—centers around the re-construction of the pedestrian border fence, which the Border Patrol said no longer meets security standards.

This fence will be replaced with 965 feet of bollard fence on either side of Friendship Circle, the area of the park where those on the American and Mexican sides of the park can get closest to each other.

A bollard fence design is a series of large capped poles positioned tightly together to block anyone from squeezing through, but at the same time not make a solid fence, which can easier to climb.

At Friendship Circle, a 50-foot picket fence with mesh between the fences will be installed, allowing for a clear line of sight between friends and family visiting at the circle.

Other changes include removing an adjustable, wrought-iron fence in the walkway area, allowing for less constricted access for people entering Friendship Circle from the Mexican side and installing a canopy over Friendship Circle.

Replacement of the San Diego Surf Fence

The surf fence replacement project will be directly tied into the Friendship Park project, with construction on both being slated for June of this year.

The San Diego surf fence, which runs along the border and 320 feet into the Pacific Ocean, was built between 1993 and 1994 and consists of steel pipes driven into the ground.

Over the past several years, corrosion and vandalism have brought sections of the fence into various states of disrepair, the Border Patrol said. The new fence they propose would be a similar pole design but made of metals that will last longer than steel. The fence will be bollard style, which will allow some marine creatures to pass through the fence without trouble, but still restrict illegal crossings. To ensure dredging or land reclamation is not necessary, the project will be carried out from a barge stationed just off shore.

The Border Patrol has listed its intentions to be environmentally conscious during this project, citing it will obtain appropriate permits from federal environmental authorities and plan to conduct impact assessments for things like land use, geology, cultural and historical resources and protected species.

The Addition of an All-Weather Road at Bunker Hill

The construction of an all-weather road at Bunker Hill in Border Field State Park is proposed to begin in June of this year as well.

Bunker Hill is home to World War II-era bunkers, and separates the east and west sides of the Border Patrol’s surveillance area. The proposed all-weather road would consist of two segments, the western half which would span approximately 1,000 feet, and an eastern segment, spanning about 1,400 feet. The design is meant to take special care to maximize the Border Patrol’s ability to effectively police the border and leave the WWII bunkers undisturbed. Lighting along the road will also be added for extra security.

This project will not be offered to private contractors, but will be incorporated as part of a military project.

In each project, the Border Patrol made clear their intentions to seek out accountability and permits from environmental authorities.

A statement made by the Border Patrol explained the agency is “committed to consultation with the Department of the Interior, the Department of Agriculture, states, local governments, Native American tribes and property owners in the United States to minimize the impact on the environment, culture, commerce and quality of life for the communities and residents located near the sites at which such tactical infrastructure is to be constructed.”

Each project falls under the Imperial Beach Border Patrol station’s territory, which extends from the Pacific Ocean to Otay Mesa.

To learn more, or offer comments or suggestions for these projects to the Border Patrol, visit:

http://cbp.gov/xp/cgov/border_security/ti/ti_docs/sector/san_diego/san_diego_tac_proj.xml

http://cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/border_security/ti/ti_docs/sector/san_diego/circle_draft.ctt/circle_draft.pdf


http://imperialbeach.patch.com/articles/border-patrol-plans-three-new-projects-in-border-field-state-park

CBP announces five new border infrastructure projects in Nogales

Nogales International
November 11, 2010

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is set to break ground on five infrastructure projects in Nogales during the next six months. The ambitious plan calls for simultaneously upgrading downtown pedestrian crossings, building nearly seven miles of new access roads, and replacing the city’s landing-mat border fence.

CBP Commissioner Alan Bersin, who announced the projects during a community meeting Thursday at City Hall, called the construction plans “proof of progress” toward securing the border.

“Building a strong infrastructure, together with the dedication of agents, together with the technology, together with the delivery of consequences to those who violate our laws, is the best way for us to secure this border,” Bersin said.

According to CBP Chief of Staff Marco Lopez, the five projects carry a combined price tag of $41 million, and all are scheduled to be completed by September 2011.

http://www.nogalesinternational.com/articles/2010/11/11/news/breaking_news/doc4cdc86c60fa9e898840558.txt