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Thick steel bollard barriers, meant to withstand the impact of any vehicle trying to cross, reflect a Border Patrol vehicle's headlights east of San Luiz, Ariz.
James Gregg / Arizona Daily Star
This story is part of a series looking at border security, whether it can be done and what it will take. For more go to http://www.azstarnet.com/secureborder
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Tucson Region

Fences only one border tool

Tucson, Arizona | Published: 09.24.2006
Fences only one border tool
● The U.S. Border Patrol has a $1.4 billion budget and 10,500 agents on the U.S.-Mexican border, and people still slip through thousands of times a day. Sealing the border is a complex, multifaceted task that will take a multitude of tools.
Fences
There are at least seven types of fences along 85 miles of the border:
l 10- to 15-foot-high corrugated steel (also known as the Vietnam-era landing mat).
l 15-foot-high steel mesh slanted inward at the top.
l 10-foot-high chain link.
l Mesh fence without the overhang.
l Sheet metal and steel bars that allow water to cross and sister-city residents to see one another.
l Sea fence made of steel pillars sunk into concrete foundations in the sand.
l Barbed wire between bars or wooden poles.
Vehicle barriers
l Most common are railroad ties welded to vertical rails and set horizontally 3 feet off the ground.
l In very rugged areas, Normandy barriers — similar to the concrete seawalls troops encountered on the French beaches on D-Day — are dropped by helicopters and kept in place by weight.
l This summer, National Guard troops built bollard barriers, a series of steel tubes filled with concrete and anchored vertically a few inches apart.
l White steel triangles are used in riverbeds and sand dunes.
Unmanned aerial vehicles
l These devices are controlled remotely through satellite communication, and are equipped with cameras and sensing equipment able to see through clouds from up to 50,000 feet.
Tire draggers
l Agents drag three tires tied together behind their trucks to erase old foot and vehicle tracks, allowing them to see fresh prints and tracks.
War wagons
l Trucks equipped with steel mesh casings on the windows protect agents perched on unprotected hills. 
Patrol vehicles
l Agents travel along the border in sport utility vehicles, sedans, all- terrain vehicles, Humvees, boats and helicopters, and on motorcycles, horses and mountain bikes.
Checkpoints
l Set up along highways to catch illegal entrants who have made it past the first layer of security, some checkpoints are permanent, while others move each week. 
Backstops and canopies
l These structures protect trucks that patrol near the border.
Virtual fences
l Components include remote surveillance cameras that can see for up to 3 miles, stadium lights to help agents and cameras see at night, mobile towers that offer visibility from 25 feet in the air, underground seismic sensors that alert agents in control booths to illegal entrants, and night-vision cameras.
dogs
l Dogs are used at highway checkpoints, and sometimes in the field, to detect illegal entrants and narcotics.
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