Why would you have to "ground" them to judge their effectiveness? You could just look at the apprehension statistics and see.
There are areas along the border that are off-limits to patrolling due to environmental sensitivities, and it is in precisely these areas that smugglers operate, at least in some cases. And it is in these areas that people die, again in some cases. These robot craft allow us to patrol these areas with no environmental impact at all, and will almost certainly save lives if they haven't already saved lives.
Shutting down this program makes no sense at all except in the most perverse way.
...areas along the border that are off-limits to patrolling due to environmental sensitivities...True and it the watERMELons that cry to high heaven and threaten courts action if the BP goes and at the same time sues in Court because the Government isn't protecting the environment.
...it is in precisely these areas that smugglers operate...Yes it is and they leave an unbelievable amount of trash and bio-hazardous material behind.
Ask Jackelopebreeder about the crap left behind and how many get turned in from UAVs (well at least the ones from the ABP UAVs that embarrassed the BP to come up with its own).