With the current publicity surrounding the intentions of the Trump administration to begin building a wall along the border with Mexico, identify three lessons from this case that could help with that development process. In other words, if you were to advise the Trump White House on major lessons to absorb as it considers beginning its own fence, what would they be? On January 14, 2011, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano made it official: the Virtual Fence Project was to be officially canceled. In her statement explaining the decision, Napolitano cited the difficulty of creating a unified, fully integrated security system and promised to “pursue a new path forward.” What was left unsaid were the reasons that led to the final decision—principally, a too-complicated technical system that did not work and was leading to ballooning costs.

Illegal crossing into the United States along the Mexican border has reached epidemic proportions in recent years. Fear of drug smuggling, illegal aliens, and possible terrorist incursions have made the issue of homeland security one of the major “hot buttons” in the political arena, both in Washington, DC and in states located along the southern border, as well as those in proximity to Canada. The problem is compounded by the sheer sizes of the borders involved. The Mexico/U.S.

border runs for nearly 2,000 miles, much of it across desert wastelands and other inhospitable and remote areas.

Establishing any sort of border security in the wake of the 9/11 attacks is a national necessity, but it is a daunting and difficult task.