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Border Patrol Complains That Volunteers Are Tripping Sensors Used to Detect Illegal Crossers(DRUDGE)
AP ^
| 4/4/05
| Arthur H. Rotstein
Posted on 04/04/2005 12:44:34 PM PDT by Crackingham
Volunteers who have converged on the Mexican border to watch for illegal immigrants are disrupting U.S. Border Patrol operations by unwittingly tripping sensors that alert agents to possible intruders, an agency spokesman complained Monday. Scores of participants in the Minuteman Project began assembling late last week and planned to begin regular patrols on Monday, in an exercise some law enforcement authorities and civil rights groups fear will result in vigilante violence. Many of the volunteers were recruited over the Internet, and some planned to be armed. Over the past few days, they have set off sensors, forcing agents to respond to false alarms, said Supervisory Border Patrol Agent Jose Maheda.
"Every sensor has to be addressed," Maheda said. "It's taken away from our normal operations."
The volunteers planned to start fanning out Monday across 23 miles of the San Pedro Valley to watch the border and report any illegal activity to federal agents. The idea, according to project organizers, is partly to draw attention to problems on the Arizona-Mexico border, considered the most porous stretch of the 2,000-mile southern border. Of the 1.1 million illegal immigrants caught by the Border Patrol last year, 51 percent crossed into the country at the Arizona border.
Jim Coniglio of Tucson, who plans to patrol with other volunteers this week, said residents in some areas of the border have complained of being "overrun routinely" by migrants. "They're feeling insecure," he said.
The Border Patrol opposes the operation. "The possibility for something going drastically wrong is very high," Maheda said.
TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Government; Mexico; News/Current Events; US: Arizona
KEYWORDS: aliens; apanceonfier; apeanut4you; apeasement; apenemy1; apenemyuno; aphitpeice; apos; apropaganda; apsentoftruth; bordersecurity; minutemanproject
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To: Marie
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.
81
posted on
04/04/2005 5:14:57 PM PDT
by
ApplegateRanch
(Only those without honor eat dead food, rather than making every meal a fight!)
To: 19th LA Inf
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.
To: Crackingham
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.
To: Kokojmudd
"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"
To: Sybeck1
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.
85
posted on
04/04/2005 9:00:56 PM PDT
by
John Jorsett
(email: mistersandiego yahoo.com (put the at sign in between those two))
To: azhenfud
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.
86
posted on
04/04/2005 9:04:53 PM PDT
by
John Jorsett
(email: mistersandiego yahoo.com (put the at sign in between those two))
To: HiJinx
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.
To: azsportsterman
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...
88
posted on
04/04/2005 10:40:14 PM PDT
by
HiJinx
(Report Illegals ~ 1-877-USBP-HELP (872-7435))
To: F.J. Mitchell
"
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....;-)
89
posted on
04/05/2005 3:01:46 AM PDT
by
azhenfud
("He who is always looking up seldom finds others' lost change...")
To: Crackingham
"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!
To: Hi Heels
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.
91
posted on
04/05/2005 4:05:39 AM PDT
by
Arthur Wildfire! March
(<<<< Profile page streamlined, solely devoted Schiavo research)
To: philman_36
I think you have blown this petty complaint out of the water. FReegards....
92
posted on
04/05/2005 4:07:59 AM PDT
by
Arthur Wildfire! March
(<<<< Profile page streamlined, solely devoted Schiavo research)
To: Crackingham
First, you have to get your terminology straight. They're not "illegal immigrants", they are "undocumented Democrats".
To: Arthur Wildfire! March
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.
To: cripplecreek
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.
95
posted on
04/05/2005 5:21:25 AM PDT
by
ClintonBeGone
(In politics, sometimes it's OK for even a Wolverine to root for a Buckeye win.)
To: Ben Ficklin
Attorney General Gonzales? Is he an American?
Of course he is.
96
posted on
04/05/2005 5:25:11 AM PDT
by
ClintonBeGone
(In politics, sometimes it's OK for even a Wolverine to root for a Buckeye win.)
To: Crackingham
"Every sensor has to be addressed," Maheda said. "It's taken away from our normal operations."
![](http://www.wunderkraut.com/art/wiggums.gif)
"Okay boys, drop the donuts -
there goes another darn sensor!"
97
posted on
04/05/2005 8:45:06 AM PDT
by
Condor51
(Leftists are moral and intellectual parasites - Standing Wolf)
To: Crackingham
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.
98
posted on
04/05/2005 9:38:42 AM PDT
by
RetiredArmy
(Freedom, dying one court and one socialist democrat decision at a time.)
To: Crackingham
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.
99
posted on
04/05/2005 11:03:47 AM PDT
by
DH
To: Crackingham
If the stupid Border Patrol had been doing their job, then the volunteers would not be out there in the first place.
100
posted on
04/05/2005 11:37:35 AM PDT
by
Altamira
(Get the UN out of the US, and the US out of the UN!)
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