Border fence still faces challenges

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Apr 27, 2008 | by Dave Montgomery

In all but eight cases, property owners either agreed to make their land available or were ordered to do so by the court, according to the Justice Department. Two families in Los Ebanos, a small community in Texas' Hidalgo County, have filed an appeal with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals challenging a lower court decision favoring the DHS.

The department has estimated that its Secure Border Initiative, including the fence and the high-tech virtual wall, will cost $7.6 billion from 2007 to 2011. Since 2007, Congress has appropriated $2.5 billion and is being asked to approve $775 million for fiscal 2009.

But Stana, the GAO's director of homeland security and justice, said in a February report that Secure Border Initiative officials "are unable to estimate the total cost of pedestrian and vehicle fencing because they do not yet know the type of terrain where the fencing is to be constructed, the materials to be used or the cost to acquire the land."

Secure Border Initiative managers estimate construction costs at $4 million per mile for pedestrian fencing and $2 million per mile for vehicle barriers. Stana, however, said total costs will be higher because the estimate does not include other expenses, such as contract management, higher than expected acquisition costs, incentive costs to meet an expedited schedule and the unforeseen costs of working in remote areas.

Congress has authorized $1.2 billion for the remainder of fiscal 2008, which ends in October, but the GAO has blocked the release of $650 million because DHS gave Congress an incomplete expenditure plan for the fence. Lawmakers required the plan as a condition for releasing the money.