Border Patrol grounds aerial drones

Arizona Daily Star ^ | 01/25/05 | Michael Marizco

[SandRat]

Border Security ping.

[mylife]

Welp, they aren't apprehending anyone while grounded and the AZ star just told the illegals as much.

[KMC1]

seems nuts that they would ground them...

[xcamel]

hmmm... hardly. they're grounded because they work

[Chemist_Geek]

Boots-on-the-ground ping.

[TXnMA]

Albon suggested the agency might be better served by spending its budget for unmanned aerial vehicles on more agents and better equipment.

Translation: " The union wants us to hire more union goons and not replace union-dues-generating people with cost-effective unmanned assets."

[Ajnin]

It always nice to get new equipment and technology. However none of that means very much when the Administration and the Border Patrol do not have the will to properly secure the border. Get rid of the politically correct policies and we will have a secure border not to mention a huge savings to the taxpayer.

[SandRat]

and the BP Head of the Tucson Sector is if not certifiable, at least a cheap, politically PC toady.

[xcamel]

$680,000 worth of pot, and $37,840,000 worth of illegal economic damage - I think the drones more than paid for themselves.

[Carry_Okie]

This was so predictable.

ABP flies their drone withing spitting distance of the testing grounds at Fort Huachuca and shames the SUBP into coming up with their own version (a year later and at vastly higher cost).

Then, when public confidence swings to the agency in favor of continuing to support ABP, cut the program.

I wonder how long they're going to allow more illegals into the country before they figure out that the drones were effective.

[SandRat]

The Border Patrolman on the ground love the UAVs and they are doing their jobs as best they can to catch the illegals. It's the political toadies (almost all Civil Service left overs from Bubba) and the Law Yers (again Silly Sybil Seer vice types and "Immigrants Rights" read ACLU) that are frustrating things.

[AppyPappy]

It will take another 9/11 to get them back in the air.

[SandRat]

Well they forgot one thing the Minute Man Project is going to watch, report (all illegals and what the BP does with the information) all that goes on. So far they have over 250 volunteers coming to the Tucson sector to do just that and the Me.Ch.A. folks are having a hissy fit.

[HiJinx]

One of the Minuteman Project Coordinators - maybe Jim Gilchrist - was on with Sean Hannity this afternoon. I couldn't listen to the whole segmen, but what I heard of it was great.

He invited any and all media to come out and see ground truth for themselves.

[marron]

grounding the drone planes to weigh their effectiveness.

Why would you have to "ground" them to judge their effectiveness? You could just look at the apprehension statistics and see.

There are areas along the border that are off-limits to patrolling due to environmental sensitivities, and it is in precisely these areas that smugglers operate, at least in some cases. And it is in these areas that people die, again in some cases. These robot craft allow us to patrol these areas with no environmental impact at all, and will almost certainly save lives if they haven't already saved lives.

Shutting down this program makes no sense at all except in the most perverse way.

[Clovis_Skeptic]

It will take another 9/11 to get them back in the air.

I hope your not right about that, but I fear that you are right. Especially the tone in our great gubmnt. Did ya hear murdering Ted Kennedy today acting as a "defense lawyer for al queda (Rush's quote)".

[SandRat]

It was Gillcrest and he not only invited the media he invited Sean in particular and any law enforcement types. Said they were not vigilante's and he want the world to see and Washington to get the message load and clear.

[SandRat]

You made a couple of statements that bear further comment.

...areas along the border that are off-limits to patrolling due to environmental sensitivities...True and it the watERMELons that cry to high heaven and threaten courts action if the BP goes and at the same time sues in Court because the Government isn't protecting the environment.

...it is in precisely these areas that smugglers operate...Yes it is and they leave an unbelievable amount of trash and bio-hazardous material behind.

Ask Jackelopebreeder about the crap left behind and how many get turned in from UAVs (well at least the ones from the ABP UAVs that embarrassed the BP to come up with its own).