Program Provided Surveillance For Drug Smuggling And Illegal Border Crossings

A program to provide aerial surveillance along the Mexican border has been quietly ended by the Department of Homeland Security, and some Texas legislators are none too happy about the situation.

According to the U.S. Army, Operation Phalanx was established in July 2010, based on an Executive Order from President Obama authorizing up to 1,200 Soldiers and Airmen along the 1,933-mile southwest border in support of the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency. Operation Phalanx is the successor operation to Operation Jump Start, which was declared by former President Bush authorizing up to 6,000 National Guard Soldiers and Airmen from 2006 through 2008. Operation Phalanx, scheduled to end in June 2011, provides support primarily from the Southwest Border States of California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.

The website watchdog.org reports that Congressman Henry Cuellar (D-TX) says he will challenge the move by DHS to end the program. Congress authorized "full funding" for Operation Phalanx for 2017, Cuellar said. He hopes to get assistance from Senator John Cornyn and Congressmen Mike McCaul and John Carter, all Republicans, in protesting the shutdown.

DHS says it ended the program because illegal crossings of the border have declined along the border between Texas and Mexico. But according to watchdog.org, data from the U.S. Border Patrol contradicts that assertion. CBP says that apprehensions in the Rio Grande Valley are up 27 percent this year compared to 2015.

Operation Phalanx is credited with seizing nearly 13,000 pounds of narcotics between March 2012 and December 2015.

President-elect Donald Trump made border security one of his primary campaign themes, so Operation Phalanx could be back in business early next year.

(Image from file)

FMI: www.army.mil/article/56819/Army_National_Guard_Operation_Phalanx