Thread: Border Web cams go online again

Nov. 19, 2007, 12:41AM
Border Web cams go online again
Perry says he's found the funds to have virtual watch up and running as early as January
By ROSANNA RUIZ
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

Keeping watch over the border may once again become as easy as logging onto the Internet.

Gov. Rick Perry has identified $3 million in federal funding to restore a short-lived but highly publicized "virtual border watch" program that allows Internet users to access video feeds from cameras set up along the border.

As early as January, viewers might have access to feeds from some of the 200 cameras strategically located along the Texas-Mexico border. They'll be able to alert authorities if they think they see immigrants illegally crossing the border.

Perry sought out more funding after seeing the benefits of a monthlong, $200,000 pilot of the program in late 2006, said Allison Castle, a spokeswoman for the governor's office.

"We know these cameras secured our borders," she said. "We want to get them up and running as soon as possible."

The governor first mentioned the program during his 2006 re-election bid but failed to win approval from lawmakers during the last session.

The project, one of several measures intended to curb the flow of illegal immigration in Texas, is the first of its kind to be sponsored by a state government.

Among the other steps being taken in Texas: Constructing a 700-mile border fence, hiring more border patrol agents and launching a zero-tolerance policy to detain, rather than simply deport, all illegal immigrants caught near Laredo.

During the Web-based pilot program, more than 220,000 people registered to view images from cameras placed primarily on private land and displayed at www.texasborder- watch.com. They clicked on individual cameras nearly 28 million times and sent more than 13,000 e-mails to state officials, which helped lead to the arrests of at least 10 illegal immigrants and to the seizure of drugs, according to the Web site.

Supporters say this type of "virtual wall" might be more practical and less costly than a 700-mile border fence.

"It's great to use technology to try to enforce our immigration laws rather than a fence that costs up to $3 million a mile," said El Paso Mayor John Cook. "You can put up a whole lot more cameras for $3 million."

Border patrol agents in El Paso already use cameras to help keep tabs on illegal crossing sites, Cook said. The federal government's slow response and a shortage of border patrol agents, he said, may have prompted Perry to take the issue into his own hands.

Some immigration and civil rights advocates fear the program may promote even more vigilantism and violence along the border.

"The open invitation for every member of the public to get involved in immigration enforcement can be a problem when you have people with violent tendencies," said Nina Perales, regional counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

McAllen resident Othal Brand Jr., whose family owns land in the Rio Grande Valley, said he favors the use of cameras and other measures proposed for border security.

"There is a need for a combination of all the different options that they've proposed for different parts of the river," Brand said. "I don't think — as long as the river is — that one solution is the solution for the entire river."

State Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, said border security and immigration have become overblown political wedge issues. Cameras, he said, may be less imposing than a border fence, but both are responses to an issue grounded in politics rather than reality.

"Is this really about securing our borders," he asked, "or about some Americans' feelings about Mexicans?"
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5312684.html

This would be nice !!!