TEXAS DRONES: SPOT DRUGS FROM ON HIGH

Unmanned drones, flying as high as 19,000 feet in the sky, should
effectively help U.S. Customs and Border Protection seal off another
crack in drug-running corridors.

New drug-detecting technology at our ports of entry have chased the
cartels out to the relatively unguarded public and ranch lands that
border Mexico. But there are not enough Border Patrol agents, or
National Guard troops, to properly seal off such long swaths of open
spaces.

So it's good to see that U.S. Customs and Border Protection
Commissioner Alan Bersin was in Corpus Christi on Wednesday cutting
the ribbon for a fourth drone base.

While new, sophisticated equipment can detect illegal contraband
hidden amid cargo at ground level, a drone can spot a man in the
desert from a point almost three miles high and eight miles away. It
can travel up to 20 hours without refueling, and it can hover over an
area if need be.

Drones can detect not only people, but breaks in the border fence.
With a drone pinpointing the way, border agents can be on scenes of
suspected criminal activity within minutes. In the past, a
human-tracking process and chase could take hours.

We think investing in technology is a better way to secure our borders
than to just add boots on the desert floor. The boots should be in the
form of ramped-up staffing at our ports of entry so that traffic --
commerce -- can flow more freely.

El Paso is being hurt economically by long wait times at bridges. And
duties of bridge personnel have been expanded into searching for
illegal weapons and large caches of U.S. currency flowing south into
Mexico.

Diana Apodaca, spokeswoman for the Drug Enforcement Administration,
noted the drug traffickers will seek out areas where the Rio Grande is
lower, where there's no border fence and where there are no signs of
Border Patrol presence.

In other words, the drug cartels will find any cracks in the border
they can. If it gets more risky to sneak drugs over the bridges, then
they'll use remote areas.

The story of the little Dutch boy who plugged a leak in a dike with
his finger comes to mind.

Enter the high-in-the sky drones. With cameras and radar, drones can
detect people, as few as one person, and they can spot and report any
leak in the border fence.

Drones are a good answer to securing remote areas of our border with
Mexico.