Arizona Approves 'Virtual Fence'

[Clint]

It's a start.

WASHINGTON - A 28-mile "virtual fence" that will use radars and surveillance cameras to try to catch people entering the country illegally has gotten final government approval.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced approval of the fence on Friday. The fence, built by the Boeing Co., uses technology the government plans to extend to other areas of the Arizona border, as well as to sections of Texas. The projects could get under way as early as this summer, said department spokeswoman Laura Keehner.

The virtual fence is part of a national plan to secure the southwest border with physical barriers and high-tech detection capabilities intended to stop illegal immigrants on foot and drug smugglers in vehicles. As of Thursday, 302 miles of fencing had been constructed.

Chertoff said the virtual fence already is working.

On Feb. 13, an officer in a Tucson command center - 70 miles from the border - noticed a group of about 100 people gathered at the border. The officer notified agents on the ground and in the air. Border Patrol caught 38 of the 100 people who tried to cross illegally, and the others went back into Mexico, said a Homeland Security official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he isn't authorized to speak publicly.

The virtual fence system includes 98-foot unmanned surveillance towers that are equipped with an array of sophisticated technology including radar, sensors and cameras capable of distinguishing people from cattle at a distance of about 10 miles. The cameras are powerful enough to tell group sizes and whether people are carrying backpacks that may contain weapons or drugs.

"I have personally witnessed the value of this system, and I have spoken directly to the border patrol agents who are involved in operating that system over the last few months and who have seen it produce actual results in terms of identifying and allowing the apprehension of people who are illegally smuggling across the border," Chertoff said.

Last year the government withheld some of Boeing's payments for the system because technology the company used in the test project did not work properly. Boeing also was late in delivering the final product, known as Project 28. Because of this, the department received a $2 million credit from the company to go toward maintenance and logistical support of the system, the Homeland Security officials said.

The government paid Boeing $15 million of its initial $20 million contract before determining that there were glitches in the test project. The department gave a conditional acceptance in December.

Lawmakers have been skeptical of the product Boeing delivered.

"This is not the end of the Project 28 story," Rep. Christopher Carney, D-Pa., said in a statement Thursday. "We need to understand what went wrong with Project 28 to ensure that the mistakes of the past are not repeated and taxpayer dollars are not squandered." Carney is chairman of the House Homeland Security management subcommittee

 

[Tech]

Homeland Security = fail

 

[blessing]

i am from the united kingdom so mind me if i sound ignorant but ilegal immigrants such as mexicans if they come to your country looking for work is'nt that a good thing? if their working that means they have to work a low income job any ways? and don't they have as much right to america aren't mexicans native to nothern america or is it just native indians????

 

[miamiracing]

not even enough to protect the borders... build stone walls with towers and stuff like that.. just like other countrys protect her borders...

 

[Tech]

 

[Braaq]

i am from the united kingdom so mind me if i sound ignorant but ilegal immigrants such as mexicans if they come to your country looking for work is'nt that a good thing? if their working that means they have to work a low income job any ways? and don't they have as much right to america aren't mexicans native to nothern america or is it just native indians????

Yes they come over and work for cheap wages, but all that does is take jobs from Americans that want to work but expect higher pay.
Also they live under the system and have 8 friggin childeren in the states so they send them to our schools without paying taxes, and their kids do not speak enough english and it holds the rest of the children back to catch the spanish speaking children up.
They also are ruining our medical system by getting injured or getting in car wrecks with no insurance and the hospital and the taxpayers have to foot the bill.
Also, regardless if Mexicans were here first in the southwest, we won the Mexican American war so that is a mute point. This is America, not Mexico so if you were not born here then you have to come in the right way.
The problem is there are many trying to do it the right way, and millions sneaking in which is a federal crime. These problesm I mentioned above are bad because there is 12 million of them doing it. That adds up to a shit load of money being burdened on the taxpayers/citizens.

 

[blessing]

Yes they come over and work for cheap wages, but all that does is take jobs from Americans that want to work but expect higher pay.
Also they live under the system and have 8 friggin childeren in the states so they send them to our schools without paying taxes, and their kids do not speak enough english and it holds the rest of the children back to catch the spanish speaking children up.
They also are ruining our medical system by getting injured or getting in car wrecks with no insurance and the hospital and the taxpayers have to foot the bill.
Also, regardless if Mexicans were here first in the southwest, we won the Mexican American war so that is a mute point. This is America, not Mexico so if you were not born here then you have to come in the right way.
The problem is there are many trying to do it the right way, and millions sneaking in which is a federal crime. These problesm I mentioned above are bad because there is 12 million of them doing it. That adds up to a shit load of money being burdened on the taxpayers/citizens.

i appriciate you elaborating so obviously this is a big issue in the u.s has it become an increasing issue that they have to make these type fences or is it just a nuisance. don't get me wrong we have it bad over here alot of ilegal immigrants coming in. but raises the issue we can't just close our gates and hope they go away. another reason why governments suck

 

[Mygeeto]

make an iron curtain type thing that the Russians did.

 

[RealDeal2099]

Also they live under the system and have 8 friggin childeren in the states so they send them to our schools without paying taxes, and their kids do not speak enough english and it holds the rest of the children back to catch the spanish speaking children up.

Unfortunately, this is all too true. Even the ones that do speak English have very little motivation to do well at school. For the most part, the Hispanic population does not value education as a means to achieve a living.

 

[Big VIC]

Unfortunately, this is all too true. Even the ones that do speak English have very little motivation to do well at school. For the most part, the Hispanic population does not value education as a means to achieve a living.

Wow thats some racist stuff right there no education value your talking about a percent not all asshole i bust my ass at school everyday thats like saying all white folks are hicks and cant read past a second grade level. so

 

[Big VIC]

Yes they come over and work for cheap wages, but all that does is take jobs from Americans that want to work but expect higher pay.
Also they live under the system and have 8 friggin childeren in the states so they send them to our schools without paying taxes, and their kids do not speak enough english and it holds the rest of the children back to catch the spanish speaking children up.
They also are ruining our medical system by getting injured or getting in car wrecks with no insurance and the hospital and the taxpayers have to foot the bill.
Also, regardless if Mexicans were here first in the southwest, we won the Mexican American war so that is a mute point. This is America, not Mexico so if you were not born here then you have to come in the right way.
The problem is there are many trying to do it the right way, and millions sneaking in which is a federal crime. These problesm I mentioned above are bad because there is 12 million of them doing it. That adds up to a shit load of money being burdened on the taxpayers/citizens.

Braaq i still love you



But do you know any Mexicans that actually have eight kids because I do not and I am Mexican and i also believe there a thing called sales taxes so the do pay taxes and plus the only time people have an issues is immigration is when the economy is down the shitter and who need works to build the rail roads and couldn’t get any of there own and started bring them in from Mexico and the asian and paid the shitty wages That sound like us the crazy Americans. We Americans also had a crazy thing called the The Bracero Program type it in to goggle and see what its all about .

Some benefits I found
The Benefits from Immigration
Benefits from immigration include increases in economic welfare, increase in cultural diversity, and increases in the standard of living of immigrants.

1. Gains in economic welfare. We argued earlier that a 10 percent rise in immigration lowers native wages by up to 1 percent, or possibly $44 billion per year. However, these wage reductions don't just disappear. To the extent that immigrants provide low-cost labor, either more income accrues to the employers, or cost reductions are passed on to the consumer. Therefore, the host economy benefits by an equal amount that native workers lose from the cheap labor of the immigrants. In other words, the $44 billion is simply redistributed to other people in the economy, and the net effect washes out. But the gains from the low wages go beyond the $44 billion from lower wages. The goods produced by immigrant workers also generate additional profits for employers because they are able to sell more of their products at the lower price. Borjas estimates this gain to be $7 billion per year.
2. Increase in cultural diversity. This aspect of life is difficult to quantify but consumers benefit at a minimum by the increase in product diversity (for example, ethnic restaurants, cultural centers in cities, and so on). However, diversity also leads to costs including more crime, ethnic violence, and so on. Since these aspects are so difficult to quantify, we will take the easy way out and simply assume that the positive and negative aspects of diversity cancel each other out.
3. Increases in standard of living of immigrants. Most immigrants' quality of life must increase or else immigrants would not stay and new ones would not keep coming. This benefit though is not internalized by the host country. Therefore, it is not appropriate to include this in the cost-benefit analysis that we are doing.

Since we are only summing the economic welfare benefits, the economy gains $44 billion is lower costs and/or prices from immigrant labor, and gains $7 billion more on top of that by generating more profits for employers. Thus the total benefits to immigration are on the order of $51 billion annually.

 

[Big VIC]

Unfortunately, this is all too true. Even the ones that do speak English have very little motivation to do well at school. For the most part, the Hispanic population does not value education as a means to achieve a living.

I also believe its not to be blamed on the culture or race because I know plenty of black ,white, Mexican, Asians with no drive so you can not blame it on a culture or race but on the way you were raised...

 

[Tech]

 

[Mygeeto]

^^^ i think the same goes for Australia, England, ect ect..

 

[RealDeal2099]

I also believe its not to be blamed on the culture or race because I know plenty of black ,white, Mexican, Asians with no drive so you can not blame it on a culture or race but on the way you were raised...

I understand your remarks and meant no offense. What I said certainly does not apply to everyone. However, working in a school that is 30% Hispanic, there is something to be said for the fact that 9/10 of these kids are poorly behaved in class and lack the motivation to complete academic work compared to the rest of the student body. Not trying to be racist - that's simply the way things are.

 

[Braaq]

Vic, there are some economical benefits with immigration. But mostly for big corporations or contractors who save money by paying the illegal workforce less. This does slightly translate into somewhat cheaper prices on certain products or services. However, these jobs could be taken by legal citizens regardless of what race or gender.
Sales tax is a relatively small amount of our income compared to property, and income taxes which they do not pay. Property taxes is what pays for most of the public school systems, so that is what I meant.
I am not against immigration, just against illegal immigration from where ever. I did not mean to pick on one particular culture like Mexicans. But living in Tucson, that is the problems we have here. I am sure its different all over.
Also, yes I do know several people who have eight + children, its crazy, and they wonder why they are stuck living in the bad side of town and cannot support their families. Its called a condom or birth control! And I am not pointing toward a particular race on that either, I know people in this situation from all ethnicities. It creates a permanent lower class, that many cannot get out of.