Secure Border Initiative, Part 6
Part of the “technology” soon to
be employed by Boeing is real time fingerprint identification
of border crossers as they are apprehended in the field. The embarrassing
question of: “What difference does it make since you
have to haul them all away in plastic handcuffs anyway?”
seems to have been too mean spirited for anyone to ask. Another
embarrassing question to ask would have been “How many
more prisoner transport vehicles could we buy with that money
instead?”
In some places along our border the Border Patrol vehicles being
used are in such bad shape that if you take your hands off the
steering wheel they drive themselves in tight circles -- the whole
front end is gone from driving over such bad roads.
Another interesting technology soon to be fielded
by Boeing are Blackberry type PDAs. These PDAs are to allow the
Agents to get instant updates on the positions of illegals along
the border. Here too, we have a solution to a nonexistent problem.
It takes even an hour for Agents to get into position to apprehend
illegals. This is especially true when the illegals cross in large
groups and have to be surrounded.
Standard operating procedure for most Agents
is to "stand on the X" and park their vehicles on specific
spots. Agents do not wander like grazing cows.
Existing USBP helicopters are already quick on
the scene and do a good job at tracking and herding. Giving the
Agents a real time map of all the activity in their sector of
operation might be good for the smugglers to see -- because it
might show the positions of all the Agents -- but it does little
for Agents who might have to spend twenty minutes traversing three
miles of rutted dirt road to try to make the apprehension. Yes,
there are places in Arizona where five miles an hour is a Border
Patrol vehicle's top speed because the "environmentalists"
have stopped anyone from smoothing the dirt road. Yes, if you
go smooth that road you can be sued.
This PDA "real time technological solution"
is but another example of something from people who spend their
days in pristine offices and where dribbling donut sugar on their
$100 tie is the worst that will happen to them this week.
What the Border Patrol Agents need are roads
they can drive on. Notice that they are not getting what they
need -- roads -- because they then could actually do their job.
