18,000 agents, 370 miles of fencing are part of White House commitment to border security
SIW Editorial Staff
SecurityInfoWatch.com
In a press conference Thursday afternoon, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow unveiled some details of the border security initiative that the White House is pursuing.
The first phase of border security, which has largely been focused on staffing and barriers, is part of what Snow called "the greatest investment ever in border security."
That investment, said Snow, involves some 370 miles of fencing as well as 200 miles of vehicle barriers. In addition Snow pointed to the use of 70 radar facilities and four unmanned aerial vehicles plus 18,000 Border Patrol agents.
Snow's touting of U.S. border security comes as Boeing's SBInet team announced that is would be deploying a scalable, though slimmed down, version of the SBInet system. The initial phase of SBInet would cover 28 miles and would be a beta test of sorts for the fully deployed system.
Snow called the border security initiative a way to being enforcing laws that already existed.
"It [border security law] was violated with impunity for 21 years -- for the better part of 21 years," said Snow, during a noontime press briefing on Thursday. "This administration last year stepped up unilaterally and said, we are going to go ahead and take measures not only on border security, but enforcing this law."
