Posted on 05/08/2003 8:31:16 PM PDT by JackelopeBreeder
(Milady madfly passed this to me; I tried to clean up the BabbleFish translation before posting.)
Hispanic and human rights organizations in the United States condemned the anti-immigrant American Border Patrol (ABP) for its illegal use of a spy airplane to remotely detect undocumented people in Arizona.
"It is completely illegal that private groups use the airspace for functions exclusively reserved to US authorities", Katherine Culliton, lawyer for Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Foundation (MALDEF) said to Notimex.
The defender of immigrant rights also condemned that ABP plans to use that type of technology to catch undocumented people instead of using it to save human lives in the desert during the season of extreme heat that is approaching in the region.
Arizona recently became the main entry way into the United States for undocumented people, and the last year registered the greatest amount of deaths of immigrants in all the country.
Culliton’s comments followed the successful test of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (without crew) which ABP will use to detect undocumented people in the region.
According to Glenn Spencer, director of ABP, the small UAV was christened “Border Hawk” and is equipped with a camera that transmits video images through a satelite signal to earth monitors.
The UAV measures a meter in length and two meters wingspan and can reach speeds of almost 65 kilometros per hour, as well as an approximate altitude of 100 meters. Its gasoline tanks allow it to fly 90 minutes without refueling.
According to the group, based in Sierra Vista, Arizona, the aircraft will be used by ABP to detect undocumented people along the border in Arizona and their locations tipped off to the Border Patrol for apprehension.
Isabel Garcia, cofounder of the Coalition of Human rights of Arizona agreed that the use of the UAV by ABP to try to catch immigrants would break US laws that allow only competent authorities to use the airspace with police aims.
Also, that if the ABP aircraft enters Mexican territory without authorization to conduct its operations, this would break Mexican and international laws on intrusion into the airspace of sovereign nations, creating a possible international incident.
On the other hand the director of policy and legislation of Liga de United Latin American Ciudadanos (LULAC), main Hispanic organization in the United States, Gabriela Lemus, condemned the use by ABP of the UAV.
"This new action by ABP is worrisome in that it contributes to promote hatred and racism against immigrants in the region" indicated Lemus when indicating that the US government has the obligation to prevent it.
It should be remembered that while the United States does not make a reform of its migratory laws that allow to regularize undocumented people in the country and to create a program of working guests, enormous flows of illegal immigration will continue entering by the South border.
ABP has operated in Arizona since last year as a non-profit organization and free of taxes.
ABP looks to educate the US on what they consider the "invasion" of the country by Mexican undocumented people with support of the government of Mexico, and the threat that those immigrants represent to the security of the United States.
The private group is considered antiimmigrant by detractors, who have asked for federal and state authorities to investigate it along with other groups that operate in Arizona, including some of vigilantes who use arms to stop undocumented people.
The aircraft tests by ABP has caused an increasing interest by the authorities and US legislators on the possible use of unmanned spy airplanes like "Predator", as used in the recent attack on Iraq, to watch the border with Mexico and Canada.
ABP has indicated that it believes the successful test of their UAV will help persuade US authorities to adopt that type of technology to watch the border.
Some officials who have supported the use of the Predator in the border, are the undersecretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Asa Hutchinson; Senators John McCain and John Warner; and Colorado Congressman, Tom Tancredo.
Pete Domenici, Senator from New Mexico joined that group this week in supporting the initiative and to ask for the Secretary of DHS, Tom Ridge, to designate the airport at Las Cruces, New Mexico, as a possible base for Predators that operate in the South border.
The Border Patrol considers that the use of the UAV for its functions is unnecessary, because they count on a flotilla of small planes and manned helicopters that allow them to carry out their work.
They argue that when they have required use of those vehicles they have resorted to the US military for support, as happened recently in Idaho, where border guards managed to confiscate a drug shipment with the help of a UAV from the Army.
Other detractors of the use of UAVs in border areas assure that they are less reliable than the manned aircraft and show statistics that for each accident by a manned aircraft, the UAVs suffer ten.
In addition, they insist that they could violate civil rights of US citizens that reside in the border area if they are used to spy on them and not to only watch undocumented people.
Terra/Notimex
I prefer the correct term, that even Phil Collins was not afraid to use in his song:
"It's no fun, being an Illegal Alien."
They don't even have a stripped down Ruger 10-22 full auto for varmint plinking. It's downright unAmerican.
What? These whining buttwipes don't think the intrusion of millions of illegal immigrants upon American soil is creating a "possible international incident"???
Oughta equip the plane with a spotlight for night flights an watch las cucarachas scatter!
Hell! Not even Mexican Americans like these people.
Bwahahahahahaha!
It's going to be hard for the feds to explain why they won't use this sort low-cost of technology to stop the flood of these no-habla barnacles, yet continue to ignore the presence and activities of anti-American fifth-column excrement heaps like MALDEF, LULAC, La Raza, and Isabel Garcia. Things are heating up.
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