Some Doubt Border Technology's Efficacy

By ALICIA A. CALDWELL
Associated Press Writer

EL PASO, Texas (AP) -- Beto O'Rourke has lived in El Paso most of his life and cannot remember a time when there wasn't a fence or towering flood lights and pole-mounted cameras lining the banks of the Rio Grande.

So when President Bush proposed adding a high-tech fence, cameras and other technology to urban areas along the Mexican border, O'Rourke didn't pay much attention.

"It didn't seem like a meaningful suggestion at all," said O'Rourke, a 33-year-old freshman city councilman in this border city. "But maybe that's because we already have it and it doesn't seem to be working."

El Paso's border isn't alone in having the kinds of technology Bush proposed this week. Most urban spots along the Texas-Mexico border, as well San Diego and Nogales, Ariz., have them too. But still, immigrants and drug smugglers have found their way across the riverbed in Texas and deserts of Arizona, California, New Mexico and Arizona.