17 NovHow Secure Is Our Southern Border?

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says the border with Mexico is more secure and it is time to change immigration law.

Napolitano says the Obama administration has completed the construction of 600 miles of border fence. But critics say the fencing is inadequate and incomplete. Others worry environmental laws are blocking construction of parts of the virtual fence of electronic surveillance and could create areas where border patrol agents cannot easily track illegal immigrants.

The Washington Times reports the National Park Service has tried to stop the Border Patrol from placing some surveillance towers on wilderness lands in parks along the border. Some agents have been required to pursue suspected illegals on horseback or even on foot, in order to avoid disturbing protected lands.

Read More: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,575362,00.html

30 MayPrivate guards weak link in homeland security

WASHINGTON — Private security guards paid little more than janitors and restaurant cooks are guarding many of the critical security sites in the United States, usually with minimal or no anti-terrorist training, an Associated Press investigation found.

The nation’s security industry found itself involuntarily transformed after Sept. 11, 2001, from an army of “rent-a-cops” to protectors of the homeland. But cutthroat competition by security firms trying to win contracts with low bids has kept wages low and high-level training non-existent.

Read More: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-05-29-homeland-insecurity_N.htm