BORDER PATROL ADDS HIGH-TECH TOOLS TO ITS ARSENAL

Surveillance Scopes, Sensors Join Force's War on Smuggling

BROWNSVILLE, Tex.--Sitting in front of a small screen in a cramped metal
box 20 feet above the ground, senior Border Patrol agent Rey Abrego watches
a human form moving through riverbank brush on the Mexican side of the Rio
Grande. It is pitch dark outside, but the form shows up as white light
against the green glow of the monitor, which is connected to a Loris
infrared night-vision scope overlooking the river.

Hours later, the shape on the screen crosses the river into Texas and runs
into Border Patrol agents who have been directed to the scene by radio from
Abrego's olive-green "Skywatch" box. They arrest a young Mexican man and
find 16 pounds of marijuana in his backpack.

After years of waging a losing battle to control the 2,000-mile line
between the United States and Mexico, the Border Patrol increasingly is
throwing high technology into its fight against illegal immigration and
drug trafficking.

The high-tech equipment, much of it originally developed for military use,
has not yet turned the tide. People and drugs still flow across the border
in large volumes, as does all sorts of contraband from Freon to avocados.
But Border Patrol agents say the gadgetry, combined with a major increase
in manpower, is helping to make the formerly neglected agency more
efficient in its task of guarding the nation's borders.

The Border Patrol has more than doubled in size from 1993 to last year,
reaching nearly 8,000 agents. A thousand more are scheduled to be added
this year. Yet their ranks continue to be stretched thin, considering that
they must cover more than 6,000 miles of land border in the continental
United States alone.

Accompanying the personnel buildup has been an infusion of new high-tech
gear, including night-vision scopes, ground sensors, low-light TV cameras,
computerized identification systems and license-plate scanners. In
addition, the Border Patrol has acquired new vehicles, river patrol boats
and even helicopters.

The agency now has 185 infrared heat-detecting scopes deployed along the
southwestern border, a five-fold increase from four years ago. More than
8,600 seismic sensors are buried near border crossing points to detect
movements by illegal immigrants, nearly double the number in 1994.

In its latest budget request, the Immigration and Naturalization Service,
the Border Patrol's parent agency, is seeking $50 million for additional
technology, including 176 low-light "remote video surveillance" cameras to
be positioned along the border.

The high-tech equipment serves as "force multipliers," increasing agents'
productivity, according to a Border Patrol report. "The use of
technological resources such as low-light TV, infrared night scopes,
sensors and encrypted radios has moved the Border Patrol into the 21st
century of law enforcement."

Even so, agents still often resort to 19th-century methods reminiscent of
the Old West as they pursue their quarry along riverbanks and through ranch
lands adjoining the border. The Border Patrol still uses agents designated
as "sign cutters" to examine footprints and other evidence of passage to
help track down illegal aliens and smugglers.

A key technological advance in this area is the Skywatch, a mobile
observation post that can be towed behind a Border Patrol vehicle and set
up to keep an eye on crossing points. A hydraulic lift elevates a box
containing a monitor and communications gear, with windows on all sides.
Mounted on the roof of the metal box is a heat-detecting night scope with a
range of more than a mile. The operator can use it to pan across the
landscape or zoom in on suspicious objects.

A quiet-running generator powers the equipment, which includes
air-conditioning for the hot summers here and powerful outside lights that
can be turned on to illuminate illegal crossers or deter them from trying.

The Border Patrol's McAllen sector, which covers 280 miles of border and
includes Brownsville, now has about 40 Skywatches and relies heavily on
them to detect illegal crossers at night, said Jose E. Garza, sector chief.

"The night-vision equipment has made a tremendous impact," Garza said. "It
allows our folks to take the night away from the aliens and the smugglers.
It helps us do a much better job than we could in the past."

The devices have helped the sector lead the southwestern border in
narcotics seizures, he said. Last year, agents in the sector seized 132
tons of marijuana and more than three tons of cocaine worth a total of $408
million. So far this fiscal year, they have captured 59 tons of marijuana
and a ton and a half of cocaine with a combined value of $193 million.

Other infrared scopes used by the Border Patrol elevate from the back of
four-wheel-drive vehicles and produce images on a screen beside the driver.
Some agents also carry night-vision goggles that work like binoculars and
radio scanners to detect transmissions among alien-smugglers or drug runners.

"We've had great success with the scanners," said John Gunnoe, a
supervisory Border Patrol agent in Brownsville. Agents have used them to
pick up radio traffic from lookouts who are sent by drug traffickers to
scout official crossing points. The lookouts are sometimes heard speaking
to comrades in a crude code, using such nicknames as "el ronoso" (the mangy
one) for a drug-sniffing dog.

One source of frustration for the Border Patrol is a ban on its equipment
in riverside sanctuaries run by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

"They've also become sanctuaries for illegal aliens," said Garza. "We don't
want to interfere with the habitat of nocturnal animals. But the aliens and
the smugglers don't care."