Entire US-Mexico border to be guarded by Predator drones--Christian Science Monitor
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molly
Sep 1, 2010, 10:46:43 AM9/1/10
to Frontera LIst
problem solved.
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/terrorism-security/2010/0831/Entire-US-Mexico-border-to-be-guarded-by-Predator-drones
CSMonitor.com
Terrorism & Security
Entire US-Mexico border to be guarded by Predator drones
The launch of a fourth Predator drone Wednesday will mean the entire
US-Mexico border is now patrolled by the unmanned aircraft.
The international border in Nogales, Arizona is shown in this
April 22 file photo. The entire 2,000-mile US-Mexico border will be
monitored by Predator drones starting Wednesday.
(Matt York/AP/File)
By Taylor Barnes, Correspondent
posted August 31, 2010 at 8:58 am EDT
• A daily summary of global reports on security issues.
The entire 2,000-mile US-Mexico border will be monitored by drones
starting Wednesday when a new Predator drone begins flying from Corpus
Christi, Texas, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said.
There are already three drones operating along portions of the border.
Aside from the new drone launched today, money for two more was
included in $600 million legislation President Barack Obama signed
earlier this month, which ramps up border security ahead of midterm
elections on Nov. 2 and as Mexico’s heated drug war gains more
attention. Meanwhile, Napolitano calls the border safer than ever.
"With the deployment of the Predator in Texas, we will now be able to
cover the southwest border from the El Centro sector in California all
the way to the Gulf of Mexico in Texas, providing critical aerial
surveillance assistance to personnel on the ground," Napolitano said
during a conference call, according to Reuters.
"This is yet another critical step we have taken in ensuring the
safety of the border and is an important tool in our security
toolbox," she said.
Previously, the drones had covered only California to the west Texas
portion of the border, according to the Associated Press.
By the beginning of next year, six should be operating along the
border, covering California, New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas.
The Predator B drones that are being deployed have night-vision
cameras and can stay in flight for 30 hours, detecting drug and human
smuggling, Reuters added.
Bloomberg reported that Napolitano addressed the administration's
focus on deporting those with criminal records.
On the call, Napolitano said the administration has focused the
country’s border strategy on criminals who have entered the US
illegally. Currently, half of deported illegal immigrants were
convicted of a crime, she said. That compares [read pdf report from US
Immigration and Customs Enforcement] with 34 percent of those deported
in June 2009.
The August legislation signed by Obama also sends 1,200 National
Guardsmen to the border, the first of which begin arriving in Arizona
this week. Texas is to receive 250 national guardsmen, which Gov. Rick
Perry (R), who is up for re-election, has said is not enough. He has
asked for 1,000 guardsmen to be sent to Texas alone, the San Antonio
Express-News reports.
Texas Republican congressmen sent a letter to Obama this week in
support of Perry’s guardsmen request and called the president’s
current plan “woefully inadequate,” the Express-News reported.
But the legislation and the addition of drones come at a time when
Napolitano also calls the border region safer than ever; “numbers
don’t lie,” she said, according to The New York Times.
But the near-daily news of fresh violence in Mexico, such as the
finding of a massacre site in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas last
week, has increased fears about violence south of the border. Seventy-
two migrants from Central and South America – including a pregnant
woman – who were trying to enter the US were found killed, presumably
by a drug gang that tried to force them to become recruits. It was the
largest massacre in Mexico since President Felipe Calderón took office
in late 2006 and deployed the army to fight organized crime. About
28,000 have been killed in the years since.
The massacre confirmed what analysts have begun to suspect, The
Christian Science Monitor reports: gangs are diversifying their
criminal activities and targeting groups other than just rival drug
traffickers.
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© The Christian Science Monitor. All Rights Reserved. Terms under
which this service is provided to you. Privacy Policy.
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/terrorism-security/2010/0831/Entire-US-Mexico-border-to-be-guarded-by-Predator-drones
CSMonitor.com
Terrorism & Security
Entire US-Mexico border to be guarded by Predator drones
The launch of a fourth Predator drone Wednesday will mean the entire
US-Mexico border is now patrolled by the unmanned aircraft.
The international border in Nogales, Arizona is shown in this
April 22 file photo. The entire 2,000-mile US-Mexico border will be
monitored by Predator drones starting Wednesday.
(Matt York/AP/File)
By Taylor Barnes, Correspondent
posted August 31, 2010 at 8:58 am EDT
• A daily summary of global reports on security issues.
The entire 2,000-mile US-Mexico border will be monitored by drones
starting Wednesday when a new Predator drone begins flying from Corpus
Christi, Texas, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said.
There are already three drones operating along portions of the border.
Aside from the new drone launched today, money for two more was
included in $600 million legislation President Barack Obama signed
earlier this month, which ramps up border security ahead of midterm
elections on Nov. 2 and as Mexico’s heated drug war gains more
attention. Meanwhile, Napolitano calls the border safer than ever.
"With the deployment of the Predator in Texas, we will now be able to
cover the southwest border from the El Centro sector in California all
the way to the Gulf of Mexico in Texas, providing critical aerial
surveillance assistance to personnel on the ground," Napolitano said
during a conference call, according to Reuters.
"This is yet another critical step we have taken in ensuring the
safety of the border and is an important tool in our security
toolbox," she said.
Previously, the drones had covered only California to the west Texas
portion of the border, according to the Associated Press.
By the beginning of next year, six should be operating along the
border, covering California, New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas.
The Predator B drones that are being deployed have night-vision
cameras and can stay in flight for 30 hours, detecting drug and human
smuggling, Reuters added.
Bloomberg reported that Napolitano addressed the administration's
focus on deporting those with criminal records.
On the call, Napolitano said the administration has focused the
country’s border strategy on criminals who have entered the US
illegally. Currently, half of deported illegal immigrants were
convicted of a crime, she said. That compares [read pdf report from US
Immigration and Customs Enforcement] with 34 percent of those deported
in June 2009.
The August legislation signed by Obama also sends 1,200 National
Guardsmen to the border, the first of which begin arriving in Arizona
this week. Texas is to receive 250 national guardsmen, which Gov. Rick
Perry (R), who is up for re-election, has said is not enough. He has
asked for 1,000 guardsmen to be sent to Texas alone, the San Antonio
Express-News reports.
Texas Republican congressmen sent a letter to Obama this week in
support of Perry’s guardsmen request and called the president’s
current plan “woefully inadequate,” the Express-News reported.
But the legislation and the addition of drones come at a time when
Napolitano also calls the border region safer than ever; “numbers
don’t lie,” she said, according to The New York Times.
But the near-daily news of fresh violence in Mexico, such as the
finding of a massacre site in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas last
week, has increased fears about violence south of the border. Seventy-
two migrants from Central and South America – including a pregnant
woman – who were trying to enter the US were found killed, presumably
by a drug gang that tried to force them to become recruits. It was the
largest massacre in Mexico since President Felipe Calderón took office
in late 2006 and deployed the army to fight organized crime. About
28,000 have been killed in the years since.
The massacre confirmed what analysts have begun to suspect, The
Christian Science Monitor reports: gangs are diversifying their
criminal activities and targeting groups other than just rival drug
traffickers.
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© The Christian Science Monitor. All Rights Reserved. Terms under
which this service is provided to you. Privacy Policy.
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