“I think we can all agree that we don’t really want boatloads of anonymous people coming in from *wherever in the world* disembarking at 3 AM every night in Leucadia. What, now Leucadia is a “port of entry”?” (KSMountain)
Excellent article KSMountain. I agree with that last statement – but SB1070 wouldn’t target boats from landing on our shores. We have the whole Department of Homeland Security and their components to deal with that (U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement). What we need is better technology.
I got this from the article you linked to:
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The low-slung boats, when weighed down with people, can float only about one foot above water, making them difficult to see on radar. Night-vision binoculars have limited reach.
“They’re beating us with low-tech,” said ICE’s Carney. “I’m not saying they can’t be detected, but I’m saying they’re very hard to detect.”
I think part of the solution starts with creating jobs right here San Diego. For example, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (http://www.ga-asi.com/) builds the Predator B. General Atomics has about 3,200 employees in Poway and Sabre Springs, most of who work on UAVs.
“The Predator B is a high-altitude, long-endurance drone that has primarily been used by the military and U.S. government for spying and reconnaissance in the Middle East. But like Northrop Grumman’s Global Hawk, the UAV can be used for other purposes, including border security.” In fact, they’ve already being used to patrol our borders to the south. ( http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/aug/30/predator-drone-added-us-border-security/)
I think very soon we will allow our government to patrol not only our borders, but our entire coastline and surrounding communities. I know it something that sounds like it was lifted out of Huxley’s Brave New World, but I think we’re headed in this direction already. Lawmakers already “want an overall plan to speed up use of the planes beyond the border.” (http://www.cleveland.com/nation/index.ssf/2010/06/faa_resisting_pressure_to_ok_u.html) If Google has “street view” and satellite imagery and Microsoft has Bing Maps with ‘birds eye view’ – I don’t see why our government won’t be flying drones over every coastal town in America to help patrol our borders.
