US Border Control Wants Drones, Radios, Fences

US Border Control Wants Drones, Radios, Fences

SIERRA VISTA, AZ - OCTOBER 30: The new MQ-9 Predator B, an unmanned surveillance aircraft system, unveiled by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), is seen at Libby Army Airfield at Ft. Huachuca October 30, 2006 in Sierra Vista, Arizona. CBP will use the new MQ-9 Predator aircraft to patrol the southern border of the United Sates in order to stop the illegal entry of thousands of Mexican nationals and drug runners who use the vast expanses of the Sonoran desert to cross into southern Arizona, daily. The new unarmed plane flew briefly for the press to show off its surveillance capabilities by pilots of the contractor, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems. Agents of CBP will start training on the use of the aircraft very soon. The Predator will start full scale flight operations along the Mexico-Arizona border today. (Photo by Gary Williams/Getty Images)

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The US federal agents tasked with patrolling the US-Mexico border have come up with a new shopping list of items they think will enable them to better perform their job. These include better radios, 37 kilometres more of fences, and more unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for surveillance, according to an unpublished US government study.

Business Insider reports that the fence-extensions sought in Texas and California would be “the first major fencing addition to the nearly 2,000-mile-long [3220 km] southern border in five years.” Analysis based on the costs of previous fences estimates they would cost at least $92 million to install.

Border Control, which is nestled under the umbrella of US Custom and Border Protection (CBP), has not requested additional funding for fences at this stage, but the plans are clearly being considered.

The more interesting parts on the agents’ wish-list are those to do with a so-called “virtual wall” made of UAVs, blimps, and tower mounted surveillance. Currently, the lion’s share of CBP’s $447m budget goes to these means, and the agency has a stock of retired military blimps, unmanned aircraft, and other advanced technologies.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which is directly responsible for CBP, has recently acquired “more than 3,900 items of excess equipment from the U.S. Defense Department.” These include Marcbots – tunnel-detecting wheeled robots, and advanced radar systems. These should go a long way to improving Border Control’s abilities.

Watchdog, however, have criticised both DHS and CBP for neglecting Border Control’s stock of basic equipment, such as radios. In response, DHS “pledged to improve its equipment investment policies.”

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