home News Is the drones operation along the U.S border a failure?

Is the drones operation along the U.S border a failure?

Jan 17, 2015

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DHS’s 8-years-old drone program, now consisting of nine drones operating in Arizona, Texas, and North Dakota, has been unsuccessful, according to a just-released DHS inspector general report. CBS News reported that Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) expected 23,000 total flight hours per year, but it only logged about 5,100 in fiscal year 2013. “We see no evidence that the drones contribute to a more secure border,” Inspector General John Roth said. According to HomeLand Security News Wire, the program, administered by CBP, paid roughly $12,255 an hour to fly its drones, operated them for less than it had promised, and mainly used them to cover just 170 miles of the U.S. border.

A 2014 Government Accountability Office report mentioned that a fifth of CBP drone flights were conducted within the interior of the United States and beyond the 100-mile range of operations of CBP jurisdiction points. The inspector general’s report notes that drones helped in less than 2 percent of apprehensions of illegal immigrants, but CBP officials insist that there are other measures to prove the program’s effectiveness in helping secure the border. Last year, the drone program contributed to the seizure of almost $253 million worth of cocaine and marijuana. It also led to weapons seizures, and arrests. Drones do a good job of identifying incursions and should not be judged based on the number of apprehensions, the agency said.