Snip: WASHINGTON - President Bush, in El Paso last week, said, "We're going to use drones to help enforce the border in rural Texas and in rural New Mexico and rural Arizona." But it appears New Mexico and Texas have disappeared from the flight plan, at least for a few months.
Two days after Bush's speech on Tuesday, border Chief David Aguilar said the use of drones would shortly be expanded "in the Arizona area of operation," where a Tucson-based aerial drone has helped nab more than 1,000 border-crossers just in the past two months. He ignored a question about using drones over New Mexico. The problem is that, while the patrol might secure the ground along the border, it's the Federal Aviation Administration that rules the skies. Their officials have not approved the use of drones except in restricted airspace that civilian planes are not supposed to enter, such as the airspace over southern Arizona.
In the past, FAA officials have expressed concerns that the radio-controlled drones could crash into passenger planes, either accidentally or if somehow taken over by terrorists. Sen. Pete Domenici has been pushing the administration to use drones on the border for more than two years. The Albuquerque Republican fired off another letter to the heads of the FAA and the Department of Homeland Security on Thursday, urging them to "take every step within your power" to resolve the issue.
Domenici said New Mexico State University and the Department of Defense have FAA approval to use Las Cruces International Airport as a base to test aerial drones. On Thursday, FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown issued a statement committing the agency to a two-month deadline for a plan. "The FAA is working aggressively with the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection and the Department of Homeland Security to develop a solution that allows for the broader use of UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) operations in performing important border security missions," she said.
"We are working through the challenges of coordinating these additional flights while ensuring the safety of nearby civilian aircraft and are optimistic that we will be able to find a way to allow CBP to proceed. We hope to be able to announce a solution within the next two months." Earlier Thursday, Aguilar joined Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to kick off what Chertoff promised will be regular reports on the progress in patrolling the border.
"It's not going to happen overnight, but what will make it work and what makes it achievable is a strategy that blends all the elements of our power to control our border," Chertoff said. The plan includes an increase from 9,500 border agents when Bush took office in 2001 to 12,500 agents by next year. It also involves more detention beds, barriers, ground sensors and drones, Chertoff said.
It does not include a fence along the entire border with Mexico, as some members of Congress have proposed. Chertoff said such a fence would be "phenomenally expensive" and not "particularly effective."
They should make their new motto in DC don't do today what you can put off until tomorrow, or next month, or in several months or YEARS.