Secretary Napolitano Confirms Operations During Congressional
Testimony
DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano said during testimony Tuesday
before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary that three Predator B
UAS's are operating in a border patrol capacity along the boder of
Texas and Mexico.
The committee has oversight responsibility over DHS.
The Predators are part of a multi-faceted approach to border
security in the nation's southwest. "Thanks to investments that
have been made in other technology at the border, CBP currently has
a total of 21 low energy mobile imaging systems deployed to our
ports of entry along the Southwest border. Two more systems will be
deployed to our Southwest border ports of entry by the end of June
2010," Napolitano said. "Since receiving its first Predator B
Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) in 2005, CBP has increased the
number of Predators Bs based along the Southwest border to
three."
Predator B File Photo
Along with the UAS's, DHS operates a number of fixed and rotary
wing assets in an effort to secure the border from illegal
immigration and smuggling. For instance, last month, rancher Robert
Krentz was killed on his landin southeastern Arizona, "most likely
by a person who was in the U.S. illegally and was connected to
cross-border smuggling," Napolitano said. "DHS responded
immediately to the murder. Immediately following the shooting, CBP
deployed additional helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft to the area
of the murder. Border Patrol trackers located the footprint sign of
the suspect and tracked him back into Mexico. The Border Patrol
dispatched additional mobile surveillance systems to the area and
supplemented regular manned aerial surveillance with two new
helicopter flights per day. CBP also transferred additional Border
Patrol agents into the area around Douglas, Arizona, for a total of
more than 100 agents. These include teams on horseback and on
all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) that can operate across the area's
desert terrain."
Secretary Napolitano
Napolitano said the technology is supplemented by a large
increase in human resources. "(O)ver the past year, DHS doubled the
number of agents working on Border Enforcement Security Task Forces
(BESTs) in the Southwest border region," she said. "BESTs are law
enforcement task forces that combine federal, state, local, and
international personnel to tackle border crime – including
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), U.S. Customs and
Border Protection (CBP), U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA), Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and
Explosives (ATF), U.S. Attorney's Offices, Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI), and state, local, tribal and foreign law
enforcement agencies. The BEST model has proven extremely effective
not only at interdicting illegal activity, but also at building
criminal cases that lead to high-value prosecutions. Doubling DHS
personnel assigned to Southwest border BESTs has aided an increase
in contraband seizures over the past year and has helped make the
enforcement actions DHS undertakes more strategically focused and
effective."
The Secretary told the committee that the efforts are producing
results. She said that in the first year of the Southwest Border
Initiative, seizures of contraband rose in every major category
– cash, drugs, and weapons – compared to the year
before, while illegal crossings continued to decline.