My San Antonio – by Kolten Parker
SAN ANTONIO – Eight 55-foot balloons with military-grade surveillance cameras are providing U.S. Border Patrol agents an eye in the sky along the Texas-Mexico border.
The blimp-like aerostats, which fly about 3,500 feet above the ground and are tethered to the ground, have 360-degree, infrared surveillance capability that can read a license plate from miles away, according to the Valley Morning Star.
“It’s definitely been a game changer,” Border Patrol spokesman Joe Gutierrez told the Valley Morning Star. “We place them strategically in locations where there’s the most traffic. “Wherever the risk is greater, we focus resources and technology.”
Five of the eight aerostats in Texas, which are manned 24 hours a day by agents, are deployed in the Rio Grande Valley. The federal agency has boosted the number of aerostats along the border since first being loaned three last year by the Department of Defense through an equipment reuse program.
Before providing views from above for Border Patrol agents combating illegal crossings and drug trafficking, the aerostats were utilized by U.S. military forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In August, the Border Patrol added its fifth aerostat to the RGV sector. Two of the surveillance balloons are deployed in Starr County, two others are in use in Brooks County and one in Hidalgo County, according to a news release.
Rick Pauza, a spokesman for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, declined to identify specific locations or to provide footage shot by the aerostats because the “images are considered law enforcement sensitive.”
kparker@express-news.net
Twitter: @KoltenParker
Now this would be an amusing propaganda piece for .Gov if the border situation was not so horrific.
So the “geek squads” now have real time data on illegal activity…Whooppee.
Without enforcement of immigration laws these toys serve only to masturbate the M-S-M.
WHAT exactly are they helping??? Obama has opened our southern border. Is this some kind of imbecilic joke? He’s about to give amnesty to millions of illegals, which will encourage millions more to come across!
How does a surveillance balloon help? Does it alert the border patrol as to where to pick up the illegals to be processed because that’s all I see out of this? Unless it has weapons to shoot the bastards coming across, it does nothing but facilitate the escorting of illegals into our country. What a joke.
“Rick Pauza, a spokesman for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, declined to identify specific locations or to provide footage shot by the aerostats because the “images are considered law enforcement sensitive.””
Bahahaha!!! Well, I guess that just answers my question and proves my point.
It’s nothing other than to serve as protection for the drug cartels and the illegals coming across. By declining to release the footage and labeling it as “law enforcement sensitive”, that means that they are using it to monitor and assist the cartels in tracking and protecting them from any unwanted visitors (militia or stray individuals) who may be entering or wandering through the area during their drug and human smuggling operations.