Pubdate: Sat, 11 Sep 2010 Source: El Paso Times (TX) Copyright: 2010 El Paso Times Contact: http://www.elpasotimes.com/townhall/ci_14227323 Website: http://www.elpasotimes.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/829 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/opinion.htm (Opinion) TEXAS DRONES: SPOT DRUGS FROM ON HIGH Unmanned drones, flying as high as 19,000 feet in the sky, should effectively help U.S. Customs and Border Protection seal off another crack in drug-running corridors. New drug-detecting technology at our ports of entry have chased the cartels out to the relatively unguarded public and ranch lands that border Mexico. But there are not enough Border Patrol agents, or National Guard troops, to properly seal off such long swaths of open spaces. So it's good to see that U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Alan Bersin was in Corpus Christi on Wednesday cutting the ribbon for a fourth drone base. While new, sophisticated equipment can detect illegal contraband hidden amid cargo at ground level, a drone can spot a man in the desert from a point almost three miles high and eight miles away. It can travel up to 20 hours without refueling, and it can hover over an area if need be. Drones can detect not only people, but breaks in the border fence. With a drone pinpointing the way, border agents can be on scenes of suspected criminal activity within minutes. In the past, a human-tracking process and chase could take hours. We think investing in technology is a better way to secure our borders than to just add boots on the desert floor. The boots should be in the form of ramped-up staffing at our ports of entry so that traffic -- commerce -- can flow more freely. El Paso is being hurt economically by long wait times at bridges. And duties of bridge personnel have been expanded into searching for illegal weapons and large caches of U.S. currency flowing south into Mexico. Diana Apodaca, spokeswoman for the Drug Enforcement Administration, noted the drug traffickers will seek out areas where the Rio Grande is lower, where there's no border fence and where there are no signs of Border Patrol presence. In other words, the drug cartels will find any cracks in the border they can. If it gets more risky to sneak drugs over the bridges, then they'll use remote areas. The story of the little Dutch boy who plugged a leak in a dike with his finger comes to mind. Enter the high-in-the sky drones. With cameras and radar, drones can detect people, as few as one person, and they can spot and report any leak in the border fence. Drones are a good answer to securing remote areas of our border with Mexico. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake