Border security: spending climbs into billions, but skepticism grows.

• Author: Kennedy, Harold

Fueled by worries about terrorism, illegal immigration and drug smuggling, U.S. spending for border security is skyrocketing, but critics complain that much of the money is being wasted.

A recent study by Frost & Sullivan's aerospace and defense group found that border security has become a multi-billion dollar industry. "Revenue in this market totaled $5.99 billion per year in 2004 and is estimated to reach $8.1 billion by 2011," the study said.

For virtually its entire history, the United States has struggled to secure the nearly 7,000 miles of porous borders separating it from Mexico to the south and Canada to the north.

"This, however, is not an easy task," Mathew Farr, Frost & Sullivan's lead homeland security analyst, told National Defense. "Border security initiatives are difficult to implement, expensive and always carry the risk of political ramifications."

The federal government, for example, has tried in recent years to develop electronic systems of cameras and sensors to detect and identify border intrusions.

The newest effort got underway in April, when the Department of Homeland Security--which is responsible for controlling entry into the United States--issued a request for proposals for a $2.5 billion program intended to integrate existing infrastructure and new technologies into a single, all-inclusive border protection system.

The new system is part of a "secure border initiative," a multiyear plan launched in 2005 by DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff. Its goal is to bring U.S borders under operational control within five years.

"We cannot hermetically seal 7,000 miles of land borders and keep out 100 percent of illegal crossers," Chertoff said. "But we can create such a high likelihood of interdiction that it will have a strong and unequivocal deterrent effect on those who wish to cross illegally."

Gaining control of the borders requires focuses on all aspects of the problem--deterrence, detection, apprehension, detention and removal, he said.

The plan calls for more enforcement agents, expanded detention and removal facilities, enhanced physical security infrastructure, and a major upgrade in border control technology. In 2007, DHS plans to add 1,500 additional Border Patrol agents, continue the construction of the San Diego border fence, build permanent vehicle barriers in the Western Arizona Desert, install 6,700 more beds in detention centers, and spend $100 million to begin an integrated border surveillance system known...