Customs and Border Protection is confident virtual fence will work

Officials with U.S. Customs and Border Protection told lawmakers on Tuesday that they are fixing long-standing problems with a controversial program to build a virtual fence along the border with Mexico and believe they are ready to begin construction on a new phase of the project in April.

Jayson Ahern, CBP acting commissioner, told the House Appropriations Committee's Subcommittee on Homeland Security that the bureau is set to begin building the technology portion of the Secure Border Initiative in Arizona this April, after having mostly completed the 661 miles of physical fence on the southwest border with Mexico.

"With the fence projects largely complete, we will be increasing our emphasis on technology within the SBI program -- SBInet," he said.

SBInet is a network of sensors and cameras attached to control towers that will look out for illegal immigrants trying to cross the border into the United States. CBP plans to begin building in April the technology portion of the virtual fence for a 53-mile section in Tucson, Ariz.

Ahern acknowledged poor management led to technology problems, delays and cost overruns, as reported by the Government Accountability Office in September. He said the bureau has gained from this experience and in response has tested systems. "Base on the system qualification test results, we have confidence in the overall system design," Ahern said. "However, the system did not pass all of the test objectives."

Mark Borkowski, who was appointed executive director of the Secure Border Initiative in September 2008, said Customs has learned lessons from the earlier failed pilot program, named Project 28.

"Project 28 when it was deployed was to see if this can work," he said. "It didn't work out the way we had hoped. I'm not saying this may work. I'm committing to you that this will work. It's an important difference. These are intended to be operational systems."

When asked why this attempt would be different, Borkowski said CBP and the prime SBInet contractor, Boeing Co., are taking steps to ensure that commercial software solutions the bureau is using will work when integrated with the rest of the system.

"While it's not rocket science, that doesn't mean it's easy," he said. "It doesn't mean it doesn't take structure and discipline. We're going through it in a more deliberative way, making sure we take steps to force [the system] to work."

Borkowski said he had confidence in Boeing's ability to deliver, but he added it was a possibility that CBP would open future SBInet programs to competition.

"Boeing has the skills to do it," he said. "Long term, I'll be looking at what is the right way to buy this stuff. We've got to design systems for the rest of the southwest border and the northern border. I will look at our long-term contracting strategy."

When asked by Rep. David Price, D-N.C., chairman of the subcommittee, how the bureau would use $100 million set aside in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for SBInet, Ahern replied that CBP would accelerate the construction of the virtual fence in Arizona with the money.

Borkowski said the program had the funds necessary to complete the 53-mile section of the virtual fence and the stimulus funds would be used to help cover the rest of the southwest border, which includes Texas' border with Mexico. Eventually, the virtual fence will cover the 4,000-mile border with Canada.