Virtual fence towers, and their minders, impact border seclusion

By: ARTHUR H. ROTSTEIN - Associated Press Writer | Sunday, June 3, 2007 7:09 PM PDT ∞

TUCSON, Ariz. -- When Elizabeth Isaman leaves the El Mirador Ranch smack on the Mexican border, she can see a tall metal tower, packed with cameras, radars and sensors about a quarter-mile away.

It's one of nine towers creating a so-called virtual fence stretching along a 28-mile segment of the Arizona-Mexico border, dubbed Project 28, straddling the Sasabe port of entry -- the federal government's newest effort at deterring illegal immigrants and drug smuggling.

"It's like Big Brother is watching you. I don't like that part of it," said Isaman, whose son Roy runs the El Mirador. The ranch, three miles west of Sasabe, has been in the family since 1929. Sasabe is about 80 miles southwest of Tucson.

"I think it'll help the Border Patrol round up people that they catch," Roy Isaman said. "But I would rather see boots on the ground and have them confront drug smugglers that are coming across, and bandits. I would like a real fence here, to cut cross-border traffic and real cows," he said.

With the exception of a few miles of X-shaped, welded steel-rail vehicle barriers, the only border fencing on this section of the border -- if it's still standing -- consists of rusty, twisted five-strand barbed wire.

"I think everybody's pretty much scratching their heads about what the heck the government's up to," Isaman said, referring to uncertainty whether Congress will pass heavily criticized proposed comprehensive immigration reform legislation.

"I'd rather see people here with guns, so if there are any problems with smugglers with AK-47s, at least they'd have a little backup."

For the past few months, the Boeing Co. has been overseeing construction of the nine mobile towers, each 98 feet tall with an array of high-tech equipment.

Each unmanned tower's radar and sensor devices are intended to detect intruders, then zero in its potent cameras for detailed sightings. The elevation provides for line-of-sight above the surrounding vegetation and hilly terrain.

According to Arivaca merchant Roger Beal, U.S. Border Patrol officials have said the 360-degree ground surveillance radar on each tower has a range of about 9.5 miles and the cameras more than 10 miles.

The all-weather, all-hours technology will be able to distinguish humans from animals and vehicles, determine a group's size and whether weapons are being carried.

The images and information, called a Common Operating Picture and including global positioning locations of intruders as well as Border Patrol agents, will be relayed to command centers in Tucson and Sells. It also will be sent to nearby agents in vehicles equipped with hardened laptops so they can intercept the border-crossers.

At the nearby Rancho De La Osa Guest Ranch, owner Veronica Schultz said a constant flow of traffic from Border Patrol agents, National Guard troops and security guards for the tower construction sites has changed the area's solitude.

"Our driveway, which was where we used to walk for measured hikes, is now like a highway," Schultz said. She said one recent quest remarked that "between the helicopters, the towers and the fence, we could be in a war zone."

The red light atop a tower located on the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge a half-mile east of the ranch compound is clearly visible, Schultz said, and she's also concerned about the noise the tower's warning horn will make if a Border Patrol agent remotely monitoring the tower activates it to ward off an intruder.

Officials, she said, have indicated the air horn will be activated if anything gets within a certain number of feet, "and it could be a cow, it could be a horse, it could be a deer."

Each tower is attached to an anchored trailer inside a chain-link fence, along with a propane tank for a generator to power its devices and a communications satellite dish.

In the 11 years that she and her husband Richard have owned the historic ranch, Schultz said they've never had a break-in or had an illegal immigrant step foot on the ranch without asking permission.

Project 28 is the first leg of the Department of Homeland Security's Secure Border Initiative aimed at securing the U.S. borders.

"The tower has a lot of potential for creating the least impact along the border" and to the environment, said Beal, co-owner of Arivaca Mercantile. "But potentially it may be the most effective way of deterring people from crossing the border. If that's the case, that would be great."

Arivaca's closest tower is within 1.5 miles of town -- perhaps too close -- Beal said.

"We're country folk who enjoy our privacy and seclusion," he said. "The cameras will have the capability of looking in people's homes. The Border Patrol has said it won't be doing that, but the capability is there."

Arivaca is about 10 miles north of the border, and Beal said he believes the towers should be close to the border. "With the tower 12 miles from the border, the trash gets dropped for 12 miles," he said.

With construction of the nine towers nearly completed, the equipment will be tested over the next few weeks. Officials have said the system should be operational around mid-June.

On the Net:

U.S. Customs and Border Protection: www.cbp.gov

Boeing Co.: www.boeing.com

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