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Civilian-built spy aircraft monitors U.S. southern border By Jerry Seper The Washington Times Published April 24, 2005 PALOMINAS, Ariz. -- With a 10-foot wingspan, the ability to reach speeds of 65 mph, onboard cameras and heat-seeking devices, the Border Hawk could become the newest weapon in the government's effort to shut down illegal aliens and drug smugglers. That's what Chuck Floyd, a retired U.S. Army officer who lives in Maryland and visited last week with the Minuteman Project volunteers here, thinks about a drone airplane being tested in a dusty desert field just north of the Mexican border. "This airplane...

Army took look at American Border Patrol's UAV setup SIERRA VISTA -- Army officers and civilian technicians have come to Arizona to scope out the American Border Patrol's Border Hawk and control vehicle. It is unknown if the Army will end up with an unmanned aerial vehicle system being used by the private, nonprofit group that monitors activity along the U.S.-Mexico border. "We were contacted. They were interested in our system," said Glenn Spencer, who heads the American Border Patrol. Spencer said he was asked not to talk about the Army's interest except "that the Border Hawk (system) could be...

American Patrol Border Hawk Flies on First Internet Mission Click HERE to download the new and improved Border Cam Alert Software

Feature: Border Hawk drone flies By Steve Sailer United Press International, June 23, 2003 LOS ANGELES (UPI) -- There's something about the idea of pilotless drones, also known as unmanned aerial vehicles, that makes them seem both ominous and cool. So, I was intrigued to hear from Glenn Spencer, head of a group of activists opposed to illegal immigration, that he was testing surveillance drones over the Arizona-Mexico frontier. He said his private volunteer organization American Border Patrol is developing a UAV they call the Border Hawk. Their plan is to deliver live over the Internet aerial coverage of illegal...

<p>Unmanned aerial drones similar to ones used in the war on Iraq could be patrolling the U.S. border by the end of the year to help stem illegal immigration and increase security, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said Thursday.</p> <p>"We are very serious in looking at UAV (unmanned aerial vehicles) for both border applications, land and sea," Ridge told the House Select Committee on Homeland Security.</p>

<p>For years, U.S. officials along the southwestern border have done a peculiar dance with local ranchers and other residents who, without the government's help, have captured thousands of illegal immigrants from Mexico.</p> <p>Publicly, authorities have discouraged citizen patrol groups, which civil rights advocates and Mexican officials have accused of being abusive "vigilantes." But in an approach that the critics say encourages vigilantism, U.S. agents routinely accept immigrants caught by such patrols, and return the immigrants to Mexico.</p>

American Border Patrol’s Border Hawk UAV got four minutes of fame tonight courtesy of a live broadcast on MSNBC. The live version was at 6:15 PDT and it may air again later tonight. I was not aware this would be a live broadcast until the last minute; I had “assumed” that it would be another interview&tape exercise to be tossed in at some later date as filler material on a slow news day. Nope, they sent one of those big monster network trucks with a satellite antenna big enough to bounce signals off other planets. You would not believe the...

(Temporary Link) WASHINGTON -- The Homeland Security Department is considering the use of unmanned aircraft to track drug smugglers, illegal immigrants and terrorists along the porous U.S. border with Mexico, a top official told a Senate panel Tuesday. "There's a lot of interest in this," Robert Bonner, commissioner of the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, told the homeland security subcommittee. "I think there's potential there." With no human on board, Predators and other remote-controlled aircraft can watch over a potential target for 24 hours or more and fly for hundreds of miles. The aircraft can carry cameras, sensors, communications...

Fort is proposed HQ for UAV program Kolbe, others hope post can help with border security BY BILL HESS Herald/Review -- Sierra Vista, Arizona - 5/8/03 WASHINGTON -- U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe said Fort Huachuca's involvement with unmanned aerial vehicles makes Southern Arizona the best location for a UAV border security program. He and six other Republican members of the Arizona congressional delegation sent a letter Wednesday to Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge asking him to start a UAV program to help secure the borders with Mexico and Canada. The Army post, which is the designated Department of Defense Unmanned...

(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...

Arizona delegation seeks drones for border patrol Mike Sunnucks The Business Journal Republican members of Arizona's congressional delegation have put their letter-writing hats on the past few days. U.S. Sen. John McCain and U.S. Reps. Jim Kolbe, John Shadegg, Jeff Flake, J.D. Hayworth, Rick Renzi and Trent Franks penned a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge asking for unmanned aerial vehicles to be used to help patrol the Mexican border. The May 7 letter asks Ridge to develop a UAV patrol program in southern Arizona. The congressional members endorse Fort Huachuca as a good location for unmanned drone...

American Border Patrol's high-tech immigration watchdog effort took flight Wednesday with a successful testing of the group's unmanned aerial vehicle. Within minutes the miniature plane found and followed a group of people making their way along the San Pedro River. In this case, the targets were volunteers rather than the illegal border crossers who will be the focus of the group's future aerial efforts. The volunteers could have easily been among the dozens of border crossers who make their northward trek across Wes and Sandy Flowers' Palominas-area ranch, said the couple who allowed the test flight on their property. Glenn...

COMING TO AMERICA Eye in the sky targets illegals Civilian border group tests high-tech remote surveillance vehicle A civilian border-patrol group has enhanced its surveillance capabilities by employing a high-tech, remote-controlled unmanned aerial vehicle, or UAV, to assist in spotting illegal aliens attempting to sneak into the U.S. Glenn Spencer, head of American Border Patrol, says his organization has successfully field-tested "Border Hawk," a UAV the group hopes to employ as a surveillance tool. WND profiled the potential utility of UAVs in patrolling border areas last month.The purpose of Saturday's test, which took place over a section of the...

Before long, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) may be patrolling the US borders to protect against intruders of any type. ‘I am extremely supportive of the idea,’ said Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz.), a member of the newly created Homeland Security Committee and chairman of a subcommittee that will have a major say in what kinds of equipment will be pressed into service. Shadegg said two recent visits to the Mexican border underscored for him that ‘we don't have anything approaching control of that border.’ Support for putting electronic eyes in the sky is building in Congress, he said. Senator John Warner...

Live Images From "Border Hawk" Sent Over the Internet Sierra Vista, Arizona (ABP - April 25) American Border Patrol (ABP), the high-tech organization that is "shedding light" on the border problem, successfully flew its "Border Hawk," an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), and sent live video images from the UAV out over the Internet through the MIST system. According to ABP president, Glenn Spencer, the success of the UAV test will pave the way to the development of a comprehensive, low-cost system of detection and surveillance along America's borders. "This is an important step in reaching our goal of showing how...