Unmanned Plane to Monitor Border Region

The UAV planes are an important resource of the federal government for national security.

Sunday, May 23, 2010
By: Francisco DÃ*az

LAREDO, Tx.- Federal officials are hoping that by this autumn a remote control airplane will start monitoring the border corridor, starting in El Paso all the way to Corpus Christi, Texas.

Congressman Henry Cuellar informed, through a press release, that he met with Customs and Border Protection officials in Washington, D.C. and they promised to have this devise operating by autumn.

In addition, Cuellar met with directives of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), together with Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, to review the authorization of a certification for the use of the UAV planes.

"This is a national security priority and we need to know what the FAA's plans are to approve this process," the legislator commented.

He recalled that last week this federal agency gave the Customs and Border Protection Bureau the approval to fly UAV planes along the Arizona and El Paso, Texas border region.

If the Federal Aviation Administration does approve this, the UAV planes will give the customs authorities the intelligence work in the area, in order to combat all the illegal activities along the border region.

Cuellar added that they will use a Predator B with the security mission by sea and land from the air along the border corridor that goes from El Paso to Corpus Christi, passing by Laredo, McAllen and Brownsville.

This plane will transmit information so that CBP can send patrolmen, boats or helicopters to the areas where the danger or the illegal activities are detected.

"We hope to see these planes over Laredo's sky and other border regions by the autumn time, these kinds of planes can fly for 20 to 30 hours in order to secure our border," Congressman Cuellar explained.

http://www.laredosun.us/notas.asp?id=7415