Fence Inflation -- ABP Challenges DHS Numbers

Fence Inflation
ABP Challenges DHS Numbers

Sierra Vista (Arizona) Herald / Review -- December 28

Short vehicle barriers A and B are used all along the border -- See Sasabe / See Lukeville -- Taller fencing now being installed (C) is more effective

Watch group questions latest border fence tally
    ...However, Glenn Spencer, president of American Border Patrol, a non-government and nonprofit organization based in Hereford that performs aerial surveys of fence construction, said the figures provided by the Department of Homeland Security are misleading.
    "DHS implies that it has built 278 miles of pedestrian fence. However, it is including in this figure 76 miles of old pedestrian fence that had been completed long before 2007. The number of miles of pedestrian fencing that had been built by the Secure Border Initiative in compliance with the Congressional mandate is 202 miles, not 278 miles as they reported," he said.
    American Border Patrol conducted a survey of the border on Dec. 10 from Naco to the Pacific Coast, and then on Dec. 19 from Naco to 20 miles east of Douglas. The group last surveyed New Mexico and Texas on Oct. 2 and will conduct an update there beginning Jan. 4. [...]
    [Spencer] pointed out [that] government officials are misleading the public by counting vehicle barrier mileage toward the Secure Fence Act's mandate of 670 miles of double-layer fencing.
    "It is very unlikely that the 'reasonable person' or members of Congress would agree with this definition of a fence. They would say that a fence is not something that people can step through, step over or duck under, as is the case with the vehicle barriers installed by DHS," he said.
    "As evidenced by recent reports, smugglers are using portable ramps to drive over these vehicle barriers and even old 10-foot fences. It appears, therefore, that these vehicle barriers may not even meet the definition of a 'vehicle fence,' i.e., they may not 'restrict or prevent movement across a boundary,'" he added.