Feds launch operation to better patrol border
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — Unmanned aerial surveillance drones, more Border Patrol agents and expanded detention facilities are part of a federal plan announced Tuesday to help staunch the flow of illegal immigrants across the Mexico-Arizona border.
The Department of Homeland Security launched the Arizona Border Control Initiative “to create a safer and more secure Arizona,” said Asa Hutchinson, the department’s undersecretary for border security.
Forty percent of the nation’s illegal immigrants come through the Arizona border, he said.
The initiative is expected to cost more than $10 million and run through September. Starting in June, two surveillance drones will be used over remote desert areas.
David Aguilar, chief of the Border Patrol’s Tucson sector, said the drones partly replace the need for agents on the ground or in helicopters to go to a remote sensor site to see what has set it off.
The initiative will add 200 to 400 Border Patrol agents to the 1,800 in the Tucson sector, which encompasses most of Arizona’s border.
Four helicopters also will be added, giving the sector a fleet of 15, and $1 million will go toward new motion sensors.
Federal authorities also plan to expand a detention facility in Florence using seven air-conditioned tents costing about $2 million. Immigrants are held for processing before being returned to their home countries unless they volunteer to go home.