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| U.S. Vigilantes Test Drones on Mexican Border |
| 2003-05-14 |
| An Arizona vigilante group is testing homemade "drone" reconnaissance planes on the U.S.-Mexican border to monitor illegal immigrants entering the United States in lonely desert areas. Glenn Spencer, head of the American Border Patrol vigilante group, said on Tuesday the group has been testing two Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for about a month and plans to have a fleet making passes over the border by early July. "We want to show how the application of this technology can solve the border problem," Spencer told Reuters. Police and residents say they are aware of the drones, similar to unmanned U.S. military aircraft used in Iraq. Hundreds of thousands of illegal Mexican immigrants cross the border in search of work every year. Three vigilante groups, some of them armed, have sprung up in Arizona in the last three years to monitor the border and hand over any illegal immigrants they find to U.S. Border Patrol agents. The groups say U.S. authorities allow too many Mexicans to flout U.S. immigration law. Since the Sept. 11 attacks, some have also said unrestricted immigration poses an unacceptable security risk. Agreed Area residents say the drones invade their privacy and foster poor cross-border relations. Sorry, you don't own the airspace over your property and if you are outside in the open you have no expectation of privacy. That's how tabloid photographers get pictures of celebrity weddings from helicopters. "The Mexican populations along the border are indignant," said Miguel Escobar, a Mexican Foreign Ministry official based in Arizona. Tough Ray Borane, mayor of the border town of Douglas, Ariz., said the group's activities are racist. Sounds like the mayor gets a lot of immigrant votes. The vigilantes say they plan to outfit each UAV with a global positioning device to pinpoint migrants, and then forward hose coordinates to the Border Patrol. Dubbed the Border Hawk, the $5,000 drone has a wingspan of 5-1/2 feet and flies at an altitude of 300-400 feet — under the 500 feet mandated for aircraft that need certification by the Federal Aviation Administration. The craft are made by members of the vigilante group with experience in electronics, Spencer said. Roll your own UAV - $5000. Government contracted UAV - $5 million. Mario Villarreal, spokesman for the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection in Washington, said: "We appreciate the community's efforts in notifying us of suspicious activities... We encourage them to call the Border Patrol or law enforcement but those efforts should be within the law." If all they do is spot the illegals and call them in, I fully support this. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #6 All it will take is proof of one terror cell crossing and completing an attack and the will to stop the illegal immigration will be there - regardless of the outcry from businesses employing illegals, Dems crying for the lost beholden votes, and the Fox regime. It's infuriating to think that more lives have to be sacrificed before the government will even get serious about border issues. Now, did you notice I never used the media term of choice: "undocumented immigrant", which implies no illegal act - they just left their ID...uh...on the table at home..in Chiapas How about leech, or parasite? |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2003-05-15 00:27:16 |
| #5 These guys are on the right track, just using the wrong language. They should be calling themselves, "a militia of the people". After all, "militas" are not only legitimate (while vigilante committees have a bad rap), but PROTECTED by the Constitutiton. As for the difference between the local-built UAV and a Predator, the local UAV doesn't have secure transmission capabilities and download links via a JSTARS aircraft to anywhere in the world. It also doesn't have a multispectral scanner to acquire the image, and the ability to display it in real-time in virtual three dimensions. I'd also speculate that the resolution on the Predator is just a tad sharper than the home-built. When you're looking for hostile bad guys with big guns, rather than border-jumpers, second-best isn't good enough. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2003-05-14 17:37:20 |
| #4 Wanna bet the next WaPo report has the "vigilantes" operating from an "isolated compound" along the border? There's a big Dem/Mexico push to legalize the illegals already here, and allow basically unstoppable cross-border immigration. As someone living in San Diego, we've seen how to cut this to a trickle - a large fence and many more agents. All it will take is proof of one terror cell crossing and completing an attack and the will to stop the illegal immigration will be there - regardless of the outcry from businesses employing illegals, Dems crying for the lost beholden votes, and the Fox regime. Now, did you notice I never used the media term of choice: "undocumented immigrant", which implies no illegal act - they just left their ID...uh...on the table at home..in Chiapas |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-05-14 12:52:20 |
| #3 What's so funny in the WaPo article is the repeated use of the word "vigilante". It sounds so scary, ominous, and harsh..... |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2003-05-14 12:42:32 |
| #2 jsut how in the hell is protecting our borders racist! the border is wide open and the mexicans do squat! |
| Posted by: Dan 2003-05-14 12:40:26 |
| #1 I agree. First, from the civil liberties angle, then more importantly for security. My questions - Why, with a war on terrorism, is there even an issue of a non-protected border? Why are law abiding citizens characterized as 'vigilantes'? How come they have to spend their $ to do this when it is so clearly a Fed responsibility? Who is standing to gain from leaving that border so porous? |
| Posted by: Scott 2003-05-14 10:58:31 |