Bad Fences

You know, if you were going to spend $6.5 billion building a fence along the U.S.-Mexico border and performing all sorts of upgrades to the technology Border Patrol agents use to patrol the area, you might want to have some sort of measurement of whether or not that money is buying results, right? According to a new Government Accountability Office report, not so much:

The deployment of 661 miles of tactical infrastructure projects along the southwest border is nearing completion, but delays persist, due mainly to property acquisition issues. In addition, per mile costs, which had climbed substantially, are now less likely to change because contracts for the 661 miles of fence have been awarded. CBP plans to complete 10 more miles of fencing using fiscal year 2009 funds, and fiscal year 2010 and 2011 funds are to be used primarily for supporting infrastructure. A life cycle cost study has been completed which estimates deployment, operations, and future maintenance for the tactical infrastructure will total $6.5 billion. Despite the investment in tactical infrastructure, its impact on securing the border has not been measured because DHS has not assessed the impact of the tactical infrastructure on gains or losses in the level of effective control.

Now, I know the project isn't finished, there are a lot of factors at work, etc. But you've got some of the fence built. Might be worth having some numbers on hand to explain whether or not it's working, especially if your costs are rising. Just a thought.