Border patrol to stand pat when it comes to new technologies.

• Author: Magnuson, Stew
• Position: Homeland Security News

* The dream that a virtual fence on the U.S. southern border would spot every illegal migrant and drug smuggler appears to be officially dead.

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The Border Patrol's new strategic document, the first since 2004 when Congress and Bush administration officials first fell in love with the idea, indicates that the Department of Homeland Security agency will be standing pat with the hodgepodge of sensors, aerial platforms and communication systems that it acquired since gaining control of the southwest border became a political hot-button issue eight years ago.

The Border Patrol may come to Congress with a wish list sometime in the future, but only after it figures out how best to deploy and use the plethora of technologies it has already been given, said agency chief Michael Fisher.

"Are we utilizing them in the right combination?" he asked at a House Homeland Security Committee border and maritime security subcommittee hearing.

Arizona, as one case study, has forward-looking infrared radars affixed to helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles, ground sensors as well as fixed and mobile towers.

Some of that infrastructure is left over from the approximately $1 billion spent on the failed virtual fence, which was once part of the SBInet program.

"That whole suite of capabilities is something that this organization over the past few years is just trying to figure out, how do you deploy that in the theater of operation? They are not deployed equally because they all have different capabilities," Fisher said.

Some of the questions being asked are: How will the Border Patrol maximize the use of these leftover technologies? And how will it effectively transfer them to other sectors that see increases in illegal crossings?

The ability to redeploy personnel and technologies to certain areas when the agency sees an uptick in activity is one of the goals in the new strategy. It was in 2004 as well.

Subcommittee Chairwoman Rep. Candice Miller, R-Mich., brought that up in the hearing.

"What is really new in this strategic plan?" she asked. "I agree with everything that's here but it really wasn't something that grabbed me as being really new."

The plan is all about optimizing the capabilities that the Border Patrol has received over the past few years, Fisher replied. The employment of unmanned aerial vehicles was one example he gave. Synthetic aperture radar and sensors that can show subtle changes in soil where people may have passed by...