U.S. Vigilantes Test Drones on Mexican Border (Hold muh taco salad alert)

Reuters | 13 May, 2003

[Happy2BMe]

Reuters
Tuesday, May 13, 2003; 7:40 PM

By Deborah Tedford

MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) - An Arizona vigilante group is testing homemade "drone" reconnaissance planes on the U.S.-Mexican border to monitor illegal immigrants entering the United States in lonely desert areas.

Glenn Spencer, head of the American Border Patrol vigilante group, said on Tuesday the group has been testing two Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for about a month and plans to have a fleet making passes over the border by early July.

"We want to show how the application of this technology can solve the border problem," Spencer told Reuters.

Police and residents say they are aware of the drones, similar to unmanned U.S. military aircraft used in Iraq.

Hundreds of thousands of illegal Mexican immigrants cross the border in search of work every year. Three vigilante groups, some of them armed, have sprung up in Arizona in the last three years to monitor the border and hand over any illegal immigrants they find to U.S. Border Patrol agents.

The groups say U.S. authorities allow too many Mexicans to flout U.S. immigration law. Since the Sept. 11 attacks, some have also said unrestricted immigration poses an unacceptable security risk.

Area residents say the drones invade their privacy and foster poor cross-border relations.

"The Mexican populations along the border are indignant," said Miguel Escobar, a Mexican Foreign Ministry official based in Arizona.

Ray Borane, mayor of the border town of Douglas, Ariz., said the group's activities are racist.

"BORDER HAWK"

The vigilantes say they plan to outfit each UAV with a global positioning device to pinpoint migrants, and then forward hose coordinates to the Border Patrol.

Dubbed the Border Hawk, the $5,000 drone has a wingspan of 5-1/2 feet and flies at an altitude of 300-400 feet -- under the 500 feet mandated for aircraft that need certification by the Federal Aviation Administration.

The craft are made by members of the vigilante group with experience in electronics, Spencer said.

Mario Villarreal, spokesman for the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection in Washington, said: "We appreciate the community's efforts in notifying us of suspicious activities... We encourage them to call the Border Patrol or law enforcement but those efforts should be within the law."

He refused to comment directly on the vigilantes or their planned use of drones.

[Happy2BMe]

It's the DRONE - It's the DRONE!

[Happy2BMe]

DRONE BUMP!

[randog]

How long before 'drone hunting' becomes popular?

[_Jim]

Laser-tag drone hunting or thirty-ought-six drone hunting?

[George W. Bush]

Nifty.

I'There have been a lot of developments in R/C planes that are modified with conputer controlled servos to change the flaps/throttle and digital interface to the compass/altimeter/gyroscope/GPS instruments. They can then add a camera on a UHF band or use a radio modem or even a cell phone modem to send video back to the base. Heck, you could even fly an 802.11g wireless network node line-of-sight for several miles.

I've considered making one for myself. The parts aren't all that expensive.

I'd love to see photos or a website. I wonder if they're going to use a powered glider design (run engine to gain altitude, then cut throttle and glide for a while). That could be very effective in the southwest climate. Might be able to stay up for a long time in summer months, even at night.

[Porterville]

Hispanic against illegal alien bump. Arm them drones with mace and buck shot. Screw Hispanics who support illegal imigration, they are traitors of this nation and do not represent real Hispanic-Americans.

[Enlightiator]

Ray Borane, mayor of the border town of Douglas, Ariz., said the group's activities are racist.

Its racist to try to help stop a crime, which illegal immigration is? Ray Borane, you are an idiot!

[Libertarianize the GOP]

ping

[Happy2BMe]

"Ray Borane, mayor of the border town of Douglas, Ariz., said the group's activities are racist."

AY KARUMBA! BORDERS! We Ain't Got NO STINKING BORDERS!!

[Cvengr]

Area residents say the drones invade their privacy and foster poor cross-border relations.

"The Mexican populations along the border are indignant," said Miguel Escobar, a Mexican Foreign Ministry official based in Arizona.

Does this mean the Mexican government opposes the Open Skies Treaty?

If foreign nations and nuclear powers are allowed to overfly military reservations in the US without prior notice, why should a handful of impoverished laborers become alarmed when a drone flies over to patrol for illegal immigration and black market traffic?

[randog]

Thirty-ought-six, thirty-ought-seven......whatever it takes.

;^)

[George W. Bush]

  April 25, 2003

American Border Patrol
Successfully Tests UAV
Live Images From "Border Hawk" Sent Over the Internet

UAV aerial view of ABP's Mobile Internet Satellite Transmitter (MIST) and the operator of the UAV. See full size video image. (Taken April 25, 2003 at 5 pm Pacific time.)

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 technology can be used to solve the border problem," Spencer said. Spencer said the Border Hawk will be in operation on the border in the next day or so. Watch [Broadband Only] See aerial shot of SBI footpath

External links may expire at any time.

---

Note: the Watch [Broadband] link is for a 221Kbps RealPlayer video stream. Very very nice. You can see that the camera has a least one servo so it can swivel independently. Looks like they're using a miniature color video camera as image quality is a bit better than just a nasty ol' webcam.

These people are going to be able to stream live video via net. Very ambitious, very cool hobbyists.

[AlaskaErik]

Main Entry: vigilante
Pronunciation: *vi-j*-*lan-t*
Function: noun
Etymology:Spanish, watchman, guard, from vigilante
vigilant, from Latin vigilant-, vigilans
Date: 1865

: a member of a volunteer committee organized to suppress and punish crime summarily (as when the processes of law appear inadequate); broadly : a self-appointed doer of justice
–vigilantism \-*lan-*ti-z*m\ noun

Leave it to the liberal press to try and paint these folks in a negative light. I would expect nothing less.

[TLI]

I counted the "v" word seven times in the bit, then went back and ran a search on her previous works in Reuters. NONE of the previous work was so poorly written, she was pushing the concept.

[mindjam]

Ok, who has the drones that are equipped with something a little better than a camera? ;-) We need some of those patrolling the border here. Maybe a few Predators with Hellfires and some snipers to catch those who slip through.

The political ranks in the border areas are infested with people who support the illegals so cries of racism and discrimination are normal behavior for them.

[JackelopeBreeder]

Border Hawk is about 3 feet long with a six foot wingspan. It carries a video camera and transmitter which beams the video directly to the ground terminal. The video is then fired out via the satellite terminal to stream live over the internet. The payload bay will also accept an infrared camera for night work.

It can take off and land in very short distances and remain airborne up to 90 minutes with the external tanks. If there is at least a moderate breeze, it can be made to hover over a spot just by turning directly into the wind and reducing the throttle.

And yes -- the smuggler community is highly upset with this invasion of their privacy.

If Glenn ever releases close up photos of the bird, the inscription next to the camera port says: SMILE!

[George W. Bush]

You know, these smugglers are going to pay somebody to try to jam his control signals or they'll try to shoot the plane down.

I don't think they'll let the drone fly without trying something. Well, this Glenn guy sounds pretty smart. We'll see how well ABP fares against them.

I'm wondering what the cost per drone is now that they have done the development work. And the patrol range.

Of course, we all know that the government could simply pipe some satellite feeds to the Border Patrol if they really wanted to stop the traffic. But they don't want to do that.

[Happy2BMe]

Really, really cool stuff - and MAJOR congrats to all those involved and their great efforts.

Just about the time they start making headway with this, some federal judge will be bought off and declare it is invading on the privacy of rattlesnakes, tarrapins, and tarantulas.

[HiJinx]

We're still training UAV (Hunter or Predator) ops out at the Black Tower facility, right? Can you think of a better training opportunity for military UAV pilots?

Or a better test bed for UAV development?

Hmmm...wonder what would happen if I dropped a dime on the TSM?

[Spiff]

I counted the "v" word seven times in the bit, then went back and ran a search on her previous works in Reuters. NONE of the previous work was so poorly written, she was pushing the concept.

Funny. I'd been taught in college that if you repeat a point seven times in an article or essay that retention/acceptance of that point jumps to something like 90%. This looks like the author learned the same thing and used it to push her biased agenda-laden point that she thinks YOU should think that the ABP is a bunch of vigilantes.