DHS and group differ over tally of how much border fence has been built

By Jonathon Shacat
Published/Last Modified on Sunday, Oct 05, 2008 - 05:19:16 am MST

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Herald/Review

BISBEE — The U.S. government and a nonprofit border watch group disagree on which method officials should use to count the number of miles of fence being constructed along the U.S.-Mexico border.

On Sept. 14, the Herald/Review published an article in which Angela de Rocha, public affairs officer for Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection, stated Secure Border Initiative had constructed more than half of the 670 miles of fencing required by the Secure Fence Act of 2006.

She said “as of August 29, 2008, SBI had completed 190 miles of pedestrian fence and 154.3 miles of vehicle fence, for a total of 344.3 miles of fence out of 670.”

New fencing has just been installed next to old mat fencing west of Douglas, as shown in this photo taken by American Border Patrol on Thursday. Glenn Spencer said most of the mat fencing near Douglas looks like the stuff to the left, and he does not believe it meets the operational requirements of U.S. Border Patrol. (Courtesy of the American Border Patrol)

Glenn Spencer, president of American Border Patrol, a nonprofit organization, said those amounts were wrong, based on information his group has compiled during aerial surveys along the border.

As of July 29, the Secure Border Initiative had built only 108 miles of pedestrian fence. Also, there were about 161 miles of vehicle barriers, for a total of about 269 miles, according to American Border Patrol.

De Rocha later issued a clarification to the Herald/Review explaining the discrepancy. She said a Government Accountability Office report showed that as of Aug. 22, about 109 miles of pedestrian fence were built under the Secure Border Initiative. Another 78 miles of pedestrian fence had been constructed prior to the establishment of SBI in November 2005.

Spencer said he thinks the government is unfairly calculating the mileage of fencing. He said the Secure Fence Act of 2006 required the construction of “an additional” 670 miles, so the Department of Homeland Security should not be allowed to count pre-existing fence toward that target.

However, in response to Spencer, de Rocha said, “The previously constructed fencing has always been included in the 670 miles and meets the operational needs of the Border Patrol.”

The Secure Fence Act requires the construction of double layer fencing. De Rocha claims there are currently nearly 32 miles of double-layer fencing. Spencer said that number is reasonably accurate, but he pointed out the vast majority of the rest of the fencing is single layer and does not meet the requirement of the law.

De Rocha responded, “The goal is to have 670 miles of primary fence along the southwest border. A portion of the 670 miles of primary fence will be augmented by a secondary layer based on operational requirements.”

Spencer also said vehicle barriers are not actually fence because a person could “walk through or step over” them.

“The reasonable man would not call this a fence,” he added.

De Rocha said that as of Sept. 26, there were about 200 miles of pedestrian fence and about 154 miles of vehicle fence. Department of Homeland Security, she added, is committed to having 670 miles of fence done or under construction by the end of the calendar year 2008.

Spencer generally agrees with the Department of Homeland Security’s recent figures, but he made clear that Secure Border Initiative did not build all of that mileage. Spencer, who performed another aerial survey of border fence construction last week, said the total number of miles of pedestrian fence built by Secure Border Initiative so far is about 126.

Based on the progress so far, he thinks it will be “impossible” for the government to meet the Dec. 31 deadline.

A Sept. 10 statement to the Committee on Homeland Security for the House of Representatives made by Richard Stana, director of Homeland Security and Justice Issues for the Government Accountability Office, seems to agree with Spencer’s prediction.

“The deployment of tactical infrastructure projects along the southwest border is ongoing, but costs are increasing, the life-cycle cost is not yet known, and land acquisition issues pose challenges to DHS in meeting the goal it set, as required by law, to complete 670 miles of fencing — 370 miles of pedestrian fence and 300 miles of vehicle fence, by December 31, 2008,” he states.

Herald/Review reporter Jonathon Shacat can be reached at 515-4693 or by e-mail at jonathon.shacat@bisbeereview.net.

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I like what Independent wrote wrote on Oct 7, 2008 5:02 AM:

" I really like what "independent wrote"! A gun that knocks people out on entry! Now, lets pass this great idea on to the Border Patrol! We do need to wake that Gov't up and say enough is enough! They make American's walk the line if we get out of control. The Mexican Gov't needs to take action to! They should be spending their money on the border to! A work program for Mexican needs to be established! They need money. "

LadyM wrote on Oct 6, 2008 2:57 AM:

" Walt, what it will take is for all of the treasonous liberal minded politicians to be voted out of office. Remember that on November 4th at the polls. And vote no on Prop 202! "

Independent wrote on Oct 5, 2008 7:53 PM:

" Well done article, Jonathan. And my thanks to Glenn Spencer for spending time and money monitoring what our government is doing. I'd like to see our troops brought home and placed along the border (better for the environment too) with orders to shoot some kind of stun gun (don't kill, just knock 'em out and they can wake up back over the border). Be sure to vote NO on Prop. 202 designed to wipe out our Employer Sanctions law (enforcement by attrition is working). "

Hey Mae wrote on Oct 5, 2008 7:05 PM:

" It is quite hard to drive a stolen vehicle through the fence, with a ton of drugs. It would take quite a few illegal steppers, or stoopers to get the same amount across. "

Walt wrote on Oct 5, 2008 6:12 PM:

" "Fence, schmence," It is the US Border and it is for national sececurity reasons and criminal traffic elimination that we need the border secured. Congress is responsible for getting national security issues resolved now! The governor of Arizona is responsible to provide security for the state border and to curb international criminal traffic. What is it going to take to make congress and our governor do their job? Will it take a national crisis as we have in the US economy right now to get people off their rears? You can't bail out our border security failures! "

mae wrote on Oct 5, 2008 10:07 AM:

" who came up with this vehicle fence that is a bar that anyone can bend under or step over anything that will stop human crossing and that if you put fences that they can not walk through that anyone would not be smart enough to go to the area that this ridiculous ideal of a vehicle fence and walk through that. so why accept any area to be a supposedly vehicle fence as any kind of fence at all. who would consider that would stop people from walking across. "

Whytedog wrote on Oct 5, 2008 7:57 AM:

" Nothing surprises me anymore when it comes to the work our Government does. They did not want the fence so they are not building the fence. Lets see, Dec 31 will come and go. NO FENCE. Then they will say we have no money to build the fence. Americans need to the build the fence themselves if we want it done. What are the Minutemen up to these days. I will support them. "