Once Again, Texas Leads the Way

Virtual border system ineffective, out of cash - El Paso Times: "AUSTIN - Gov. Rick Perry's border Web camera program has run out of money, and in its first full year of operation failed to meet nearly every law enforcement goal.

Last year, Perry gave the Texas Border Sheriffs Coalition a $2 million federal grant to install cameras along the U.S.-Mexico border and broadcast the footage live over the Internet. An internal report showed that a fraction of the 200 cameras Perry wanted on the border were installed, and that Internet border patrollers produced a handful of drug busts and a scattering of arrests.

Experts on both sides of the immigration issue said the program was unsuccessful. Certain lawmakers have called it a waste.

'Instead of making Texas safer, it has made Texas the source of international ridicule,' said state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso."