Aerial drone will fly on Texas border soon, Napolitano says
[SIZE=-1]12:00 AM CDT on Wednesday, April 28, 2010
[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]Gary Martin, San Antonio Express-News[/SIZE]
WASHINGTON ? Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told a Senate hearing Tuesday that an unmanned aerial drone will soon fly through Texas skies as drug-cartel violence continues to escalate on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Texas is the last border state to receive a Predator drone, and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said the absence of one has hurt intelligence capabilities of federal, state and local law enforcement.
"I'm concerned that some of the assets that could be deployed to help not only quell the violence, but also keep our borders secure, are not being deployed because of unnecessary foot-dragging," Cornyn said.
Napolitano said Texas was the last Southwest border state to receive a drone because "Texas airspace is more crowded."
Napolitano, under questioning by senators, said the timeline for placing a drone in Texas remains a decision for the Federal Aviation Administration.
"The FAA now has to go in and carve out, as I understand it, space for the Predator," she said.
The drone tentatively would be stored in Corpus Christi. It would help law enforcement officers identify drug and immigrant smugglers and relay that information to authorities on the ground.
Napolitano testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which held an oversight hearing into programs under the Department of Homeland Security.
The secretary said that over the past 15 months, federal law enforcement initiatives have made the border more secure than at any other time in history.
Operation Stonegarden, which provides federal aid for local law enforcement assistance, sent $90 million to states, counties and cities for police and investigative efforts. Of that, 85 percent went to the Southwest border.
She said the number of Border Patrol agents has doubled from 10,000 to 20,000 in five years, and 653.3 miles of border fence have been built.
Still, she said, more needs to be done to build partnerships with the Mexican government, which remains in an intense battle against narcotics cartels.
Napolitano said the recent deaths of a Douglas, Ariz., rancher and U.S. consulate employees in Juarez, Mexico, were tragedies "that serve to remind us of how drug violence can directly affect Americans and our nation's interests."
More than 23,000 people have died in Mexico in the "drug war" since 2006, Cornyn said.
Gary Martin,
San Antonio Express-News
