http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51414-2003May13.html


Reuters
Tuesday, May 13, 2003; 7:40 PM



By Deborah Tedford

MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) - An Arizona vigilante group is testing homemade "drone" reconnaissance planes on the U.S.-Mexican border to monitor illegal immigrants entering the United States in lonely desert areas.

Glenn Spencer, head of the American Border Patrol vigilante group, said on Tuesday the group has been testing two Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for about a month and plans to have a fleet making passes over the border by early July.

"We want to show how the application of this technology can solve the border problem," Spencer told Reuters.

Police and residents say they are aware of the drones, similar to unmanned U.S. military aircraft used in Iraq.

Hundreds of thousands of illegal Mexican immigrants cross the border in search of work every year. Three vigilante groups, some of them armed, have sprung up in Arizona in the last three years to monitor the border and hand over any illegal immigrants they find to U.S. Border Patrol agents.

The groups say U.S. authorities allow too many Mexicans to flout U.S. immigration law. Since the Sept. 11 attacks, some have also said unrestricted immigration poses an unacceptable security risk.

Area residents say the drones invade their privacy and foster poor cross-border relations.

"The Mexican populations along the border are indignant," said Miguel Escobar, a Mexican Foreign Ministry official based in Arizona.

Ray Borane, mayor of the border town of Douglas, Ariz., said the group's activities are racist.

"BORDER HAWK"

The vigilantes say they plan to outfit each UAV with a global positioning device to pinpoint migrants, and then forward hose coordinates to the Border Patrol.

Dubbed the Border Hawk, the $5,000 drone has a wingspan of 5-1/2 feet and flies at an altitude of 300-400 feet -- under the 500 feet mandated for aircraft that need certification by the Federal Aviation Administration.

The craft are made by members of the vigilante group with experience in electronics, Spencer said.

Mario Villarreal, spokesman for the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection in Washington, said: "We appreciate the community's efforts in notifying us of suspicious activities... We encourage them to call the Border Patrol or law enforcement but those efforts should be within the law."

He refused to comment directly on the vigilantes or their planned use of drones.

Uh-oh. Sheeple becoming proactive. This will not do, not do at all. Somebody call the legislature, quick! We need a new law and we need it NOW!

cynic

Certainly the TEXAS legislature won't be of any help...not until the AWOL Democrats are rounded up and forced back into the chamber!  [:D]


I say we hire the Chinese to build a damned WALL across our Mexican border...because they have experience in such things!

Make it a thousand feet high, a hundred feet thick, dead vertical all the way (on the Mexican side) with a slight overhang on the top fifty feet or so, and have a sniper's post every mile equipped with a Barrett M82A1,  a Stinger missile battery every three miles,  and an Apache Longbow squadron every fifty miles.   Make it extend ten miles into the oceans at both ends,  and as for rivers that flow through it,  channel them through tunnels that have grates in them every ten feet from end to end.

The last 500 feet of ground before the wall is heavily mined,  and the last hundred feet is cordoned off by a razor wire fence and denotes the free fire zone.  Anyone entering that zone nearest the wall will be shot.

I'm all for it.

CJ

Our civilians are building UAVs? Damm! How can anyone hope to challenge a nation whose civilians build UAVs to monitor the borders in their free time?

Now if only they can mount weapons and strafe the bastards...

Soo. Anyone taking bets as to how long it'll be before these guys are shut down, or one of the drones suffers a few rounds?

Meplat-

I like this guy!

aw fuck it, why not just start another mexican american war?

Finally, I know why I'm enduring the torture of engineering school.[}:D]

... I absolutely love it!

... I could design and build Unmanned Reconnaissance Vehicles (URV). I would give my time in a heartbeat to participate in this!

Winston, how about RC HELOs? Apache shaped! Airsoft full auto minigun on the front!! or pepper spray paintball guns!! HELO body is, say 6feet long.... would be damn cool, especially with tazers and FLIR.

Unfortunately, that would royally PO the FAA...

The current rangefinder setup is as far as they can legally go...

As for shooting down drones, I wonder if the Mexican Army wants to move AD assets in just to shoot at American RC planes... You can't reliably hit a 3x5ft target moving at 60mph over 120yds away with a rifle... It would take ADA or missiles...

Sounds like they have some RC plane hobbists among them.  LOL.  I think the military got the idea of the "over the next hill" UAV stuff they have been showing off recently from hobbists' "toys" here in the US...

I don't think it will happen for a bit, Spencer's group has,better technology in some areas than the BP has available to them, thou thats what I've heard from guys with first hand knowledge of his group(former& current members.) The UAV's are the next step, hell IIRC they have there own damn helo that they use too.

Let me know when, I want in! lol

So hit there site become a "hawkeye" and go chase illegals as they cross the border, only to be treated like a criminal yourself, If you want to have some fun get a hold of CHD there located in tombstone, HEll I can put you in touch with them if you want.

5000 bucks huh?  The gov would have spent 93,000,000 to get one in the air....