DHS Ineffective on Our Southern Border

Written by Chuck Floyd on 2008-09-12T07:18:17+00:00

DHS is not stopping illegal aliens and drug runners from coming across our southern border.  The reason is political.  We have the technology and the engineering capability to stop all illegal traffic, but our administration elects not to fully implement the plan approved by Congress.  We need to rely less on high tech solutions and use low-tech solutions that work.  I, as a retired military officer, wrote a border security plan that works, but DHS has the wrong Con Ops and the wrong contracting plan.

Homeland Security Department officials Wednesday defended management of the effort to deploy a virtual fence along the Southern border, saying that they would rather delay implementation to ensure the program works.  I can direct this border security program so it works and our nation is secured.

Comment on this article in The Forum.During a hearing before the House Homeland Security Committee, Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Ralph Basham also took issue with the committee for the title of the hearing, "Mismanagement, missteps and missed benchmarks: Why the virtual fence has not become reality."

He said the agency would not rush to deploy something that doesn't work. The agency's priority is to get the virtual fence, known as the Secure Border Initiative or SBInet, right before deploying it.  So, until DHS gets its act together, hundreds of thousands of illegals will cross our border.  Wow--what a plan!

He voiced frustration that the agency has been criticized for moving too fast to deploy unproven technology while also being blasted for missing deadlines. "While I can't say SBInet is not without problems, it is not a failure," Basham said, adding that the agency's "commitment to get it right" has never been stronger.

When asked by Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson whether the technology requested for the virtual fence's demonstration project is working as expected, Stana said it "has not met expectations" and the contract language was written in a manner that makes it difficult to assess.

"We were told that this is not a complicated procurement," Thompson said. The committee wants to "see whether the taxpayers are getting what they paid for." Basham and his deputy, Jayson Ahern, noted that there has been some confusion over the purpose of the demonstration project and even if it has not operated as hoped, agency officials have learned much from the effort. "That's what a proof of concept is," Ahern said.

I am asking The White House (again) to let me lead the SBI Net team so we accomplish our goal of national security on our borders.