Free Republic

WASHINGTON -- The Department of Homeland Security is considering the use of unmanned drones along U.S. borders to find illegal immigrants, but a citizen group is beating the agency to the punch.The group, American Border Patrol, purchased and equipped three large model airplanes with cameras and night vision systems and began using them for patrols last week. It has set up radio sensors along a stretch of the Texas-Arizona border to help guide the drones."We're ready to go," said Glenn Spencer, who leads and largely finances the Sierra Vista, Ariz., group. "We'll be out there flying along the border, sending...

American Border Patrol is seeding a Huachuca Mountain canyon with ground sensors in final preparation for its first operational testing of a tracking system that will also use GPS-guided unmanned drones. In the testing, the private border-watch group will try to detect, document and then broadcast live images of the flow of illegal border crossers trekking across a sparsely populated canyon south of Sierra Vista. The area has become a major footpath for illegal border crossers. American Border Patrol founder Glenn Spencer said the location was selected after area residents approached his group seeking help in curbing the ongoing flow...

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...

ReutersTuesday, May 13, 2003; 7:40 PM By Deborah TedfordMONTERREY, 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...

When the U.S. Border Patrol launches its two new remote-controlled, camera-equipped aerial vehicles later this month to help in the search for illegal border crossers, it won't be the first border watch group to do so in the state. American Border Patrol, a private group based in Cochise County, recently marked a year of unmanned aerial vehicle patrols ....