http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0328borderradar0328.html

Radar system at border advances in Legislature Senate panel OKs $50 mil 'smart fence' bill

Chip Scutari The Arizona Republic Mar. 28, 2006 12:00 AM

State lawmakers moved closer Monday to spending tax dollars on a ground-based radar system to detect people trying to illegally cross the U.S.-Mexican border.

A House Appropriations Committee passed Senate Bill 1273, which would spend $50 million over the next two years to construct a type of "smart fence" that would utilize a ground-based radar and camera system. That type of technology is being used by the Marines Corps in Yuma. The size, scope and operation of the technology still must be determined. The military credits the system with helping find "unauthorized personnel" on the range before bombing runs, thereby preventing deaths and injuries.

The early afternoon vote came while more than 300 students walked out of their high schools Monday and marched to the Capitol to protest a bill in Congress that would make it a felony to be an undocumented immigrant. The teenagers waved Mexican flags and chanted slogans in Spanish.

With illegal immigration the top issue in Arizona politics, lawmakers have introduced more than 20 proposals targeting border security.

The state's 382-mile border with Mexico is the most popular illegal-crossing corridor in the country. There seems to be a solid chance that legislative leaders and Gov. Janet Napolitano will embrace new border technology developed by a Scottsdale-based company. Sensor Technologies & Systems Inc.has created a ground-based radar, the "smart fence" to detect intruders crossing the U.S.-Mexican border onto a military range in Yuma, an increasingly popular illegal-immigration corridor.

The military can find people crossing the border and relay their global positioning system coordinates to Border Patrol agents. The radar sweeps 360 degrees, tracks movement and relays information to a camera, which can zero in to check for an intrusion.

Napolitano, a Democrat, unveiled a $100 millionpackage that includes heightened border enforcement and tougher sanctions against employers that hire undocumented workers. Napolitano has said she wants a comprehensive border-security package and does not want the Republican-controlled Legislature to send her up a "piecemeal" group of illegal-immigration bills.