In February of 2007 I attended a conference on the Secure Border Initiative held in Sierra Vista, Arizona. Speaking from the floor, I asked a group of panelists why this virtual fence system design wasn't taking into consideration the Secure Fence Act of 2006.
It seemed to me that if a double-layered fence were built on the border, what need would there be for an electronic fence? The panelists were unable to answer the question.
Some years later I arrived at the answer independently: The virtual fence was never intended to work together with the real fence because George W. Bush never intended to build the real fence. And, for that matter, the virtual fence system itself was never designed to work.
The entire fence story, virtual and real, was conjured up to convince the American people that Congress could move ahead with amnesty legislation, knowing with full confidence that the border would be secured.
In the final minutes of the amnesty debate, however, Senator Dole pointed out that only two miles of the 700-mile double-layered fence had been built. This helped defeat the legislation.
With amnesty dead, the Bush Administration was in a pickle -- they were stuck with a fence they never intended to build. To solve that problem they got Texas Senator Hutchinson to sneak in a last minute amendment to kill it.
The recent demise of the virtual fence is the final chapter in a sordid story of deception and dishonesty -- a story that cost American taxpayers one billion dollars and set off the Mexican drug war.
