On message boards with decidedly right-wing leanings, I’ve found that this is heartily embraced.
Also, a Mexican human-smuggling gang is targeting these minutemen. This is also seen as good news in right wing forums, as it is assumed the American public will demand better border security if private citizens trying to lock down illegal smuggling are killed.
Should be interesting.
I’m curious as to what their proposed solution is once the public becomes “aware of how porous the border is”. The US shares two enormous land borders with Mexico and Canada and has several thousand miles of coastline. I don’t see how these borders can be effectively protected short of mobilizing a veritable army of coast and border guards. Any effort short of that will be token at best.
I don’t think the US economy can handle a tightened southern border. Bush’s immigration policy is out of those things that many right-wingers have had to swallow hard on.
Tesla Coil Maginot Line
Hasn’t the public had this information for decades? I know I’ve seen the question of border security come up a number of times when news programs talk about post-9/11 security, yet years later little has changed.
The US shares two enormous land borders with Mexico and Canada and has several thousand miles of coastline. I don’t see how these borders can be effectively protected short of mobilizing a veritable army of coast and border guards. Any effort short of that will be token at best.
Because most of the border is pretty barren, it’s an area that technology could really do much of the work. Unmanned aerial drones could be built on the cheap with sensors that could cover large amounts of land for hours on end simply looking for heat signatures of human size, sending out an alert for border patrol helicopters to swing by and check out. Because of the weather conditions in that region, using blimps as UAVs would be ideal. You could probably patrol most of the border with a helicopter fleet just over twice that used by the LAPD (26, iirc).
Organizers of the Minuteman Project said the civilian volunteers, many of whom were recruited over the Internet, will meet first for a rally in this one-time silver mining town, then fan out across 23 miles of the San Pedro Valley to watch the border for a month and report sightings of illegal activity to Border Patrol agents.
The San Pedro River valley is one of the finest places to birdwatch in North America, if not the entire western hemisphere. And you HAVE to go to remote canyons to see the “life” birds there-and not all of the birdwatchers are American and speak good English.
They are, of course, doing their patrols during the height of the birdwatching season.
I do hope the area can get through this kind of madness without any violence. SE Arizona is a real national treasure.
Wouldn’t it though?
I mean, if a European country decides to actually enforce its borders, and gangs in the neighboring country said “FU we pwn your borders and we’re gunna pwn you now”, and then they shot barely armed ‘militiamen’ in within said countries borders…
… i mean, that is a problem, right? It seems like those tiny Baltic nations would happily go to war with each other over something like this. Or invade their neighbor to stop.
- If there was severe penalties for employing illegal labor and 2) The laws on it were actually enforced, you’d see it dry up in a damned hurry. Why neither of these is the case, in spite of a strong consensus that it should be, well, draw your own conclusions.
I think you mean “Balkan” and “Balkan”, respectively.
I think you mean “Balkan” and “Balkan”, respectively.[/quote]
Your right i was sunbaked and exhausted yesterday when i typed. Apologies to all the Latvians.
Ah, sweet irony.
Border Patrol Complains About Volunteers
TOMBSTONE, Ariz. (AP) - Volunteers who have converged on the Mexican border to watch for illegal immigrants are disrupting U.S. Border Patrol operations by unwittingly tripping sensors that alert agents to possible intruders, an agency spokesman complained Monday.
…
Over the past few days, they have set off sensors, forcing agents to respond to false alarms, said Supervisory Border Patrol Agent Jose Maheda.
Every sensor has to be addressed,'' Maheda said.It’s taken away from our normal operations.‘’
Irony is when the result isn’t what you expected. :)