Thread: Military choppers regularly patrol Brownsville skies

Military choppers regularly patrol Brownsville skies

March 29, 2012 10:03 PM

By LAURA B. MARTINEZ/The Brownsville Herald

When Brownsville residents first heard helicopters constantly hovering over the area earlier this month, the postings on social media websites went wild.

Facebook users wanted to know if anyone else had heard the helicopters? How long would they be flying? They wanted to know if shootings were occurring across the border in Matamoros?

The helicopters could be heard flying overhead almost daily.

Now, when residents hear the helicopters, fewer are asking questions or commenting on Facebook. It appears residents have accepted the fact that the helicopters are part of the new border security strategy along the Rio Grande.

“I think until the issues in Mexico are resolved, I think it is something that we are going to get used to hearing,” said Cameron County Judge Carlos H. Cascos, who resides in Brownsville.

“I’d rather hear them than not hear them. I don’t think people should get alarmed. I think that they should welcome them because there is border security going on right now,” Cascos said.

Cascos said federal, state and local leaders met last week to provide local officials with an update on how the U.S. Border Patrol and National Guard are handling border security, including the use of helicopters.

Late last year authorities were informed that the U.S. Department of Defense would be assisting the U.S. Department of Homeland Security by using more military helicopters and other aircraft to patrol the border, while it pulled some National Guard troops out of the area.

Cascos said officials were informed about the state-of-the-art helicopters that would be used to patrol along the Texas-Mexico border. However, he believes the helicopters that everyone hears patrolling now belong to either U.S. Border Patrol or U.S. Customs and Border Enforcement, and are doing what could be considered routine patrols.

“These helicopters we are hearing, it is just too many of them. I’m thinking it might be a joint operation where they are flying up and down the border just as a precautionary measure,” Cascos said.

Rosalinda Huey, a spokeswoman for the Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley Sector, said she could not comment on the strategy the Border Patrol is using, but said the agents usually call out for a helicopter when assistance is needed.

“They are our eyes in the sky. ... If the agents feel the need to call for air assistance they do. We really don’t discuss operations. If we have a need to call air operations we do,” Huey said.

Lt. Col. Amy Cook, public affairs officer for the Texas National Guard, said the helicopter patrol — known as the Task Force Border Guard — have been in operation since March 1 and are assisting in the transition from boots on the ground to aerial support for border security.

“It is meant to just reassure the citizens of Texas that fellow Texans are helping the Border Patrol,” Cook said.

The National Guard began assisting the Border Patrol with border security in 2010 when President Obama ordered the deployment of1,200 guardsmen along the U.S.-Mexico border for border protection.

The troops worked on intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance support, analysis, training and to support efforts to block drug trafficking.

The helicopters on patrol are one on many additions added to beef up security along the Southwest border over recent years.

Two U.S. Congressmen are seeking more help. They want the Department of Defense to send surplus equipment returning from Iraq and Afghanistan to the Southwest border with Mexico.

U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, and Ted Poe, R-Texas, were joined by 17 border sheriff’s from Texas, Arizona and New Mexico that penned a letter to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta requesting surplus military equipment be sent to the border area.

Officials report that already 1.5 million pieces of military equipment have been shipped out of Iraq and about 900,000 pieces remain. They say much of that equipment could be useful to federal, state and local law enforcement officials in their efforts to secure the border with Mexico.

“If we want to boost border security, we have to help law enforcement agencies beef up their resources to meet this demand. We cannot have one without the other,” Cuellar, D-Laredo, said.

Poe said border security is a national issue and this is the reason officials are asking for the defense department’s assistance. He said local authorities are on the frontline of the southern border and do the best with what equipment they have, but more is needed.

“They are out-manned and out-gunned by the drug cartels and they are desperate for more resources,” Poe said.

Poe recently introduced a House Resolution that would require 10 percent of certain equipment returning from Iraq to be available to law enforcement agencies that patrol the border. It is unknown if this includes any additional helicopters.

“I would rather have them (helicopters patrolling) then not have them, quite frankly. I think they are out there to deter anybody from having second thoughts” of doing something illegal, Cascos said.

Military choppers regularly patrol Brownsville skies | helicopters, heard, residents - Brownsville Herald

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