Border Patrol Complains That Volunteers Are Tripping Sensors Used to Detect Illegal Crossers(DRUDGE)

AP ^ | 4/4/05 | Arthur H. Rotstein

[ApplegateRanch]

They need more bodies, more equipment and a darn *MOAT*FENCE*BARRIER* to do it better. And they don't need (my beloved)administration inviting the trouble makers *in*!

Instead of turning them loose, sentence them to 5 years hard labor, then put them to work (as unpaid prisoners) digging a Texas to California canal, super-carrier size...

Couldn't be any more wasteful than the Big Dig, and might actually accomplish something, even if it were never finished.

[HonestConservative]

If the number of IIs are returning to Mexico and coming back is unknown, how do you know it is large?

No offense intended, but others will say that most Illegals pay taxes. How do we know if we really do not know how many are here? And reverse it, if most are paying taxes, no wonder the politicos don't want to enforce the law.

[One Proud Son]

How can Americans be criticized for just walking around on American soil. If there wasn't so much media surrounding these guys, no one would care. The Border Patrol can complain all they want, but if I take a horseback ride and trip one of those sensors, it's not my fault.

[Ecthelion]

"Howzabout scrapping the gizmos and building an Israeli style wall instead?" Yeah, let's build a 10' wall on thousands of miles of border. The second a wall goes up, they tunnel under, or climb over, and we're back to where we started. The Israelis can police a wall, because it won't be very long. Simpler, and probably more cost effective, to put state national guard on the job, or maybe even regular army. The BP is horribly understaffed; also, it's gotta be pretty disheartening to arrest an illegal alien only to see them again in a few days or a week. Give the guys a break, and let's get them some trained, proficient help. I used to live 5 miles off of the border in Double Adobe, AZ, Very close to where these folks are playing cops and robbers. I know what goes on. I've seen stuff that just ain't right. Some of it downright scary. I've reported plenty of illegals to the BP, though calling the sherrif would usually garner a better response time, as the Sherrif was usually in a town 10 miles away, not 20 miles away off-road chasing a group of illegals. Most of those patrolmen/women work damned hard at their job, and until you've walked 10 miles in their shoes through scorpion,12" centipede, 4' rattlesnake etc infested desert, give 'em a friggin break. You wanna get mad at somebody, get made at the politicos that let the border get this bad. The civilian's intentions are great, but an end does not justify the means. It would not surprise me in the slightest if shots are fired at them by coyotes and good men die because they were somewhere they weren't supposed to be. Are they vigilantes? Yes. They're ordinary citizens taking the law into their own hands. It's not even their property. With most of them, it isn't even their own state. I understand the why. But I have to say it ain't right what they're doing. Unlike the government, though, I'd propose that we do something to fix it. Military would help. *Holocaust cloak on* "It fit so nice, he said I could keep it"

[John Jorsett]

Are these sensors on private property?

Yes, some are. The Border Patrol puts them on private land when it has the owner's permission. They also get the owners' permission to patrol on private property, so it's not at all unusual to see a Border Patrol vehicle on someone's private land.

[John Jorsett]

Funny that 4000 per day couldn't trip their sensors, but 100 or so "vigilantes" can upset their applecart.

The sensors get tripped all the time, and the agents are continually running around to clear them. It isn't always people, either. It's a common occurrence for cattle to trip them. They even have a protocol for certain sensors where they won't investigate unless they get X trips in some period of time, indicating the likelihood that a number of people are passing. That's how they cut down on having to check sensors that have a high false alarm rate.

[azsportsterman]

I spent some time in the military working with sensors. I worked with the same sensor systems used by the Border Patrol. Proper emplacement would have the sensors deployed in "strings" that would be activated in sequence providing not only an alarm but also a probable direction of movement. Further analysis of the data would also allow the determination of target speed. The information could then be plotted on a map; capture sites could be determined and manned prior to the arrival of the bad guys.

Review of the sensor activation pattern would quickly indicate that a group of cattle or a known presence such as the Minutemen were causing the activation negating the need to send an agent out to the sensor site to investigate.

This all means either the Border Patrol isn't using the sensor system properly or that the admin types are blowing smoke at the unknowing public.

[HiJinx]

Thanks for the input, if people get far enough into this thread to read your post, it should put some of what the BP admin type is saying into perspective.

I think blowing smoke is a good characterization of that...

[azhenfud]

"Instructions in Spanish are posted at each sensor, explaining to the illegal aliens just how to reset them and turn off that agravating blinking light on the board back at BP control. The volunteers just leave them blinking until BP agents go out and reset them."

Well that explains it. Some MM can't read Mexican, so they can't turn 'em off....;-)

[philman_36]

"Every sensor has to be addressed," Maheda said.
I'm sure all sensors do have to be addressed.
However, if you turn on that camera you probably have down there showing you the area in question you won't have to get out from behind your desk to make your report.

Border Patrol Remote Surveillance Video Automatic detection of illegal immigrants at U.S.-Mexico border near Eagle Pass, Texas, by computer image analysis of video feed from U.S. Border Patrol remote surveillance unit.
Now, that may be in Eagle Pass, but I'd be willing to bet dollars to doughnuts that "Supervisory Border Patrol Agent Jose Maheda" made sure his budget allowances were kept up for renewal by spending every bit of said budget dollars the previous fiscal year by buying nifty items like the boys in Texas have.
OH LOOKY, an article from Tucson! It seems I was right!...The group was spotted by an agent operating an infrared camera near the intersection of Puzzi Ranch and Plantation roads.
"It's taken away from our normal operations."
Just what are your "normal" operations?

Somebody needs to give Maheda some new talking points! The ones he is using are BS!

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

That's roughly on the lines I'm thinking. If the Border Patrol coordinated with the Minutemen, perhaps with CBs, cell phones, etc, then they could easilly find out about the tripped alarms. Or, they just quit worrying about sensors in areas where the Minutemen were there.

But instead, they keep their noses in bloody manuals and gripe about help.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

I think you have blown this petty complaint out of the water. FReegards....

[Fresh Wind]

First, you have to get your terminology straight. They're not "illegal immigrants", they are "undocumented Democrats".

[philman_36]

I think you have blown this petty complaint out of the water. FReegards....
I certainly hope so. That was my intent.
(and some have the audacity to claim that keyboard cowboys don't make a difference...HA!)
FReegards to you as well.

[ClintonBeGone]

I think the guys in the field are all for the undocumented agents. It's the higher ups that officially oppose them.

It's all about job security for these BP union bosses.

[ClintonBeGone]

Attorney General Gonzales? Is he an American?

Of course he is.

[Condor51]

"Every sensor has to be addressed," Maheda said. "It's taken away from our normal operations."

"Okay boys, drop the donuts -
there goes another darn sensor!"

[RetiredArmy]

Federal Employees on Border Duty Complaint: Citizens doing our job for us, making us look bad, we complain. Dems do something to make these citizens stop making we government employees, union members, democratic voters, look bad. Oh, right, they are causing all the sensors to go off. That is what is making us look bad.

[DH]

What the minutemen need to do is trip a sensor and see how long it takes the BP to respond. I'll bet that a few hours will elapse before anyone comes to check it out......if at all!

They need to report to the public the fact that with the slow response time guarentees that the illegal has had plenty of time to vanish each and every time. That will clearly show that these "electronic marvels" that they tout are totally useless unless MANPOWER is used to respond to them in an INSTANT manner.

[Altamira]

If the stupid Border Patrol had been doing their job, then the volunteers would not be out there in the first place.