Less than half of U.S. border secured

Billions of dollars later and there are still gaping holes in the U.S.-Mexico border.

A new federal report is out on security along the border and it does not look good, especially in New Mexico and Texas.

The report from the Government Accountability Office said there are nearly 2000 miles of border separating the U.S. and Mexico, and not even half of that is considered fully secure by U.S. Customs and Border Protection standards.

New Mexico farmer and rancher James Johnson lives along the border.

He told news 13 last March that drug smuglers and illegal immigrants can easily sneak through.

"My father was held up at gunpoint in 91," Johnson said about the danger on the border. "And it's always been in the back of our minds that another tragedy could happen."

The stretch of border from the Pacific Ocean past Yuma, AZ ranks as some of the most secure, according to the report.

Then it gets less and less secure past Tucson and into New Mexico, and then down through Texas to the Gulf.

The report states nearly 30 percent of New Mexico's border with Mexico is not under operational control, meaning border agents do not have eyes and ears at all times on more than 50 miles of the Mexican border in our state.

Border Patrol officials said that progress has been uneven because of terrain and transportation obstacles, as well as sending resources to higher risk areas, according to the report.

Since 2005 the border patrol has added more than 7000 agents and more than 500 miles of fence along the border.

Some locals in Southern New Mexico said they have tried their own methods to cut back on people crossing the border.

"We've tried to work with Verizon, tried to get a tower built, " Johnson said. "Everybody would be basically an informant. They could put up road signs along the way that say, 'see suspicious activities, call the proper authorities.'"

If ranchers along the border are expecting a high-tech fence to keep people out, they better not hold their breath.

Homeland Security canceled that project earlier this year because it was over budget and behind schedule.

Instead of the high-tech virtual border fence, Homeland Security will use existing technology like unmanned aerial drones to combat illegal immigration.

The stretch of border with the least amount of security is in the Marfa-Texas sector, which runs a few hundred miles along the Rio Grande southeast of Juarez.