St. Joseph News Press Editorial At the risk of saying “I told you so,” Rep. Sam Graves probably has standing this morning to point out exactly that.

Northwest Missouri’s congressman stumped the 6th District weeks ago, calling for an actual fence to be constructed along the United States’ border with Mexico. While he might favor a fence anyway, his real message that day was that a “virtual fence” placed along the border had proven to be a multimillion-dollar boondoggle.

This week, officials with the Secure Border Initiative office in Washington agreed. The $20 million prototype, including nine electronic surveillance towers spaced along a 28-mile section of the border, will be scrapped. The replacement will be designed with more input from the Border Patrol and include communications towers, new cameras and new radar capability.

Rep. Graves likely won’t be happy with the new approach, which in the view of opponents essentially will put good money after bad in a continuing quest for a high-tech border barrier. At last count — before the $20 million failure of the prototype — this project was pegged at a cost to taxpayers of $85 million.

The congressman has said repeatedly that he wants effective controls on illegal immigration. He has supported increasing the number of border control agents by 8,000 in the next five years; adding 1,300 other immigration officials; boosting enforcement of employer verification processes; and adding infrastructure for oversight of the border.

On that last point, he told our reporter in March, “A virtual fence doesn’t work … I know it doesn’t keep cattle in.”

For the full story:http://www.stjoenews.net/news/2008/apr/25/graves-saw-coming