Free Republic

PALOMINAS — Glenn Spencer sat in front of a set of computer screens Wednesday morning in his office here and monitored activity along a nine-mile stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border. Using his mouse, he controlled the pan, the tilt, the zoom and the contrast of a thermal camera. “This is the San Pedro River there,” he said, pointing to a screen. “When you look down there at night with this camera system, if there was a person down there, they would stand out like a Christmas tree light at five miles away.” Spencer, president of American Border Patrol, a non-governmental...

A little after 7 p.m. I was in was in my backyard being interviewed by two student film makers. We were surrounded by my seven German Shepherds and had been talking on camera for about a half hour when a shot rang out, then another, then another, about a second apart. The shots were coming from the southwest. The shots seemed to come from a location very nearby. I and the film makers heard bullets whistle over our heads. We immediately took cover behind my house. I began yelling at Star and her pups to come to me as I...

<p>PALOMINAS, Ariz. -- Wearing a camouflage jacket that cloaks the semi-automatic handgun at his waist, Chris Simcox aims his binoculars less than a mile away toward the seven strands of barbed wire that divide this remote desert town from Mexico.</p>

ABP Sensors Prove Worth on BorderTen Suspected Border Intruders Caught on Night Camera Ten suspected border intruders (SBIs), probably Brazilians, are caught on ABP's infrared camera. Moments later the group spotted the camera crew and ran into the woods. Team Uses Sensor Data to Catch Border Crossers In the ActCochise County, Arizona (ABP) -- Using a report from a ground sensor, an American Border Patrol surveillance team was able to get close-up video of ten suspected border intruders last Friday night. The sensor reported that ten people were on a trail northbound from the border. The ABP surveillance crew...

<p>For years, U.S. officials along the southwestern border have done a peculiar dance with local ranchers and other residents who, without the government's help, have captured thousands of illegal immigrants from Mexico.</p> <p>Publicly, authorities have discouraged citizen patrol groups, which civil rights advocates and Mexican officials have accused of being abusive "vigilantes." But in an approach that the critics say encourages vigilantism, U.S. agents routinely accept immigrants caught by such patrols, and return the immigrants to Mexico.</p>

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...