Pubdate: Thu, 29 Apr 2010
Source: El Paso Times (TX)
Copyright: 2010 El Paso Times
Contact: http://www.elpasotimes.com/formnewsroom
Website: http://www.elpasotimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/829
Author: Diana Washington Valdez

BORDER SECURITY BILL: SURVEILLANCE DRONES, RADAR KEY PARTS OF $300M PLAN

EL PASO - Sen. John Cornyn wants to take control of the border with 
Mexico by filling it with military technology like drones, radar and 
night-view cameras.

Cornyn, R-Texas, on Wednesday proposed the Southern Border Security 
Assistance Act, a $300 million grant program for border law 
enforcement officials.

Under the proposal, state, county, city agencies and sheriff's 
departments would be able to apply for expedited grant funding to buy 
monitoring equipment, communications technologies, night-view 
cameras, laptops, vehicles, drones and helicopters.

They would also be able to use the money to hire and train staff in 
prosecuting drug cases; hire additional judges; provide 
administrative support, dispatchers and jailers; and cover overtime expenses.

U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, is working with Cornyn to 
get the proposal approved. Both also are trying to get Federal 
Aviation Administration authorization to operate a drone at the 
Texas-Mexico border.

"The FAA has been dragging its feet on this," Cornyn said during a 
news conference Wednesday. "There are only five drones available for 
border security. Three of them are on the northern border, and 
neither of the two in the southern border is for Texas."

He said he and Hutchison plan to speak to high-level FAA officials to 
find out what is delaying the approval.

Hutchison said, "For communities along the border with Mexico, the 
threat of violence is becoming all too real, but the federal 
government has yet to fully step up and do what is necessary to take 
on these challenges."

Drones are unmanned aerial vehicles that the military has used for 
surveillance and attacks. They also have nonmilitary applications, 
such as checking the state of pipelines.

When Cornyn was in El Paso last week, he received private briefings 
from ICE, ATF, FBI, U.S. military and the U.S. attorney's office. He 
crafted his proposal based largely on information he received from 
briefings about the situation at the border.

Cornyn said he is looking into whether the Air Force-Army JSTARS can 
be deployed in the fight against the Mexican drug cartels.

The U.S. military has used the air-to-ground Joint Surveillance and 
Target Attack Radar System in Iraq and Afghanistan.

JSTARS can determine the direction, speeds and patterns of activity 
of ground vehicles, helicopters and groups of people, and it can 
operate in all kinds of weather.

Cornyn, however, indicated that he is reluctant to share U.S. 
military technology with Mexico, because of fears that drug dealers 
will infiltrate government agencies and jeopardize the 
intelligence-gathering operations.

The senator said the Merida Initiative, which earmarked $1.3 billion 
in assistance for Mexico to fight the drug cartels, may not be the 
best solution.

As of last September, only $26 million of the money had been spent. 
After that was made public, $113 million worth of equipment had 
arrived in Mexico by March, "but implementation challenges remain," 
according to an April 19 Congressional Research Service report.

U.S. lawmakers are considering a modified version of the Merida Initiative.

Other lawmakers are renewing calls to use the U.S. military to assist 
with border security.

Texas state Rep. Ted Poe, R-Humble, and a group of bipartisan 
lawmakers, called on President Barack Obama on Wednesday to grant 
requests from border governors, including Texas Gov. Rick Perry, to 
assign National Guard soldiers to the border.

In a letter to Obama, Poe and the others asked that the soldiers be 
armed, be allowed to defend themselves if fired upon while assisting 
the Border Patrol and other law officers, and be given clear rules of 
engagement.

"As you know, the level of violence along the border continues to 
increase," the letter said. "Since January 2008, nearly 5,000 
homicides have been committed in Juarez, Mexico, making it one of the 
most violent cities in the world."

Poe said the murders in Juarez of Lesley Enriquez, a U.S. Consulate 
employee, and her husband, Arthur Redelfs, a 10-year veteran of the 
El Paso County Sheriff's Office, and the slaying of long-time rancher 
Robert Krentz at the Arizona border, brought the issue of border 
security to the national forefront.

He also said the Border Patrol reported a 46 percent increase in 
assaults to its agents along the border, from 752 in 2007 to 1,097 in 
2008, and that the El Paso Sector Border Intelligence Center also 
warned of possible retaliation against law officers in the border region.

[sidebar]

Mexico slayings

How drug violence in Mexico breaks down:

100,000: Estimated members of major Mexican drug cartels; rivals size 
of Mexico's military.

9,635: People killed in Mexican gang or cartel-related violence in 
2009, more than triple that of 2007.

5,000: People killed in Juarez since 2008.*

3,365: Lives lost in first three months of 2010 as a result of 
drug-related violence.

522: Mexican military and law enforcement officials killed in 2008.

$25 billion: Estimated annual sales of Mexican drugs to the United 
States. Source: U.S. Sen. John Cornyn; *El Paso Times research.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom