Bush's 'Virtual Fence' Faces Trouble, Delays

But doing everything by remote control is difficult. With so many technologies and systems to be integrated, it takes 30 to 40 seconds for imagery to reach a command center in Tucson, 65 miles to the north, making it hard for operators to lock cameras on potential targets, officials said.

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"Although the individual components of the system worked well, the system integration was not satisfactory," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told members of the House Homeland Security Committee earlier this month, noting that the Boeing system had failed a test drive. "We didn't want to get stuck with a lemon," he said. "I am not going to buy something . . . unless I'm satisfied it works in the real world."

Chertoff said he spoke with James F. Albaugh, chief executive of Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, on Sept. 4 about potential consequences, telling lawmakers: "If this is not going to work, if it's too complicated, we're prepared to go back to the drawing board and do something simpler. . . . I believe the contractor understands what's at stake."

Boeing reshuffled its management team in August, shifting responsibility to IDS's network and space systems unit and replacing its project director. A Boeing spokesman referred questions to DHS but said the new director had "invaluable" experience.

James Jay Carafano, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, said the program's troubles show the danger of premising immigration law changes such as a new guest-worker program on untested, long-term enforcement strategies. Bush officials' rhetoric last year about the virtual fence raised "kind of unrealistic expectations about what you're going to get at the front end," he said.

If the program falters, he added, "it's embarrassing for everyone" who pressed for comprehensive legislation in Congress this year.

Gregory L. Giddens, the program's executive director, was in Tucson last week to plan a new round of key tests for mid-October, his spokesman said. U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesmen declined to say how much Boeing has been paid so far and what other contracts have been awarded.

Two U.S. border surveillance programs cost taxpayers $429 million between 1998 and 2005, DHS's inspector general reported in December 2005. They yielded a system that could be triggered by insects, horses and weather, and so Border Patrol agents never investigated 60 percent of sensor alerts. Ninety percent of the rest were false alarms and only 1 percent led to arrests.