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What we NEED versus what we can actually afford to provide are two different things. What we NEED is a physical barrier with electronic counter uses. One in which people trying come into the country can be stopped. BUT, is this economically feesable? No.

We simply cannot afford the building cost, maintenance cost, and patrol cost to have one erected. Case in point, most of the fences that line the US/Mexican boarder are in constant need of repair. Cut daily, bombarded daily, and even run down daily, these fences provide quite the financial strain on the United States Boarder Patrol.

The alternative? The Electronic Fence. From motion detection, night vision, and GPS tracking of subjects, we can see when people are physically trying to cross our boarders. BUT, even with that in mind, we only SEE and IDENTIFY, we seldom have the resources to respond INSTANTLY to a given threat. So, while we can identify those coming into the country, and in some cases, may be able to respond to them, we can not catch most of them still entering our country.

The downfall of the electronic fences and cameras, etc, is the privacy issues. While the United States Boarder Patrol constantly maintains that they are only looking at ENTRY points, the fact of the matter is that they are able to see into windows, yards, cars, and even tree-houses of surrounding properties. Is this an acceptable given for this type of protection? Yes, and No. Yes, we need to be able to monitor people entering our country, and yes, sometimes our freedoms have to be taken for granted, or at least stretched a bit, BUT, and this is a big BUT, the security and privcay of our citizens are just not protected to the level YET that would afford them added security from the USBP.

So, options? Solid fence with electronic capabilities. One in which we can detect changes in the structure of the fence, or tampering; one in which we can record activities without hindering those who are around the fence. The problem is cost, and the ability to vandalize it. The reason the cameras/sensors are located so far away from the boarder is to avoid tampering, as well as international spying laws. We can not just put a camera on our boarder and expect it go untouched or unnoticed. Instead, we have to train cameras on these points from distant locations.

Overall, the electronic fence we use now is sufficient; but, the United States Boarder Patrol needs to take into account the PRIVATE lives of United States Citizens in regards to those actually entering the country. We can not just take pictures of people's houses, analyze them, store them and hope that they don't get used for some 'malicious means'. Or even in the case of blanking out locations, this would provide security risk. Right now we are in a catch 22, but, a SOLID physical barrier would be best.

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