Don't fence me in

U.S. government officials need to "redirect" (whatever that really means) $400 million to complete construction of the Bush Barrier, that high-tech fence that's supposed to keep the Mexican border secure, according to this story in today's New York Times. These same officials are saying there's a chance -- a chance, mind you -- that the fence might not be finished by the end of the year. According to latest reports, 341 miles of new fencing is in place. The U.S. Mexican border stretches 2,000 miles, although the Bush Barrier is only expected to secure 670 of those miles. Still.

The fence is proving to be almost as difficult as getting a Calatrava Bridge across the Trinity. In February, the government estimated it would cost $4 million per mile for pedestrian barriers, large steel and mesh plates, and $2 million per mile for vehicle fencing, a bunch of short thick poles situated closely together. Today those prices have jumped to $2.8 million per mile for the vehicle fencing and a whopping $7.5 million a mile for the pedestrian barriers.

But the physical fence is only part of the problem. There's also supposed something called a virtual fence, developed in cooperation with Boeing Corporation. This virtual fence is supposed to guard the border between Mexico and Arizona. However, the Government Accountability Office announced yesterday that the Homeland Security Department did not realize such a project required all kinds of environmental reviews and since those reviews were never scheduled, the entire project will probably have to be postponed. The department thought the waivers they had to bypass environmental reviews for the physical fence also applied to the virtual one. These are the types of problems that seem to arise when folks in Homeland Security are given the freedom to think for themselves.

In a meeting with Congressional leaders yesterday, W. Ralph Basham, commissioner of the department's Customs and Border Protection division, summed it up quite succinctly: "We are going to be out of business unless we get some relief. The operation will stop."