A bipartisan proposal for immigration reform calls for beefing up the use of drones to spot illegal immigrants along the US-Mexico border. But before the machines are deployed, drone advocates need to prove they're effective, and also address concerns that they're another step in the direction of creating a total surveillance state.
The proposal, put forth by four Democrats and two Republicans, is a sweeping reform of immigration law. Part of the plan calls for increased use of drones to patrol the US's southwestern border. The legislators "plan to come out with a bill in March, after further negotiations on exact language," writes Elise Foley at the Huffington Post. "The drones are used to spot illegal border-crossers, not to shoot them down, but there are still some concerns about their use within the United States."
Details are sketchy, according to the Washington Times's Inside Politics blog:
The proposal doesn't say how many drones would be added to the federal fleet, but the reliance on drones could be problematic at a time when some in Congress are calling for a review of how law enforcement uses them...
[The] US Customs and Border Protection's current drone program is chaotic and the agency can't keep its drones flying at the rate it had promised.
The paper contends that the agency hasn't budgeted sufficient funds to repair broken drones.
The Huffington Post raised other objections. Drones are "faulty and overly expensive" border-watching tools, writes the Post's Matt Sledge. He cites a report from the Customs and Border Protection's own inspector general:
Following up on that report, an article by the Center for Investigative Reporting found that drones were sometimes stopped from taking off by high winds, and were much less productive than existing, manned planes like the P3 Orion.
"I liken it to using a Humvee as a taxicab," said David Olive, a principal at the lobbying firm Catalyst Partners and a one-time chief of staff for former U.S. Rep. Asa Hutchinson (R-Ark.). "You know what, it will work, it will do the job, but there are so many other things that will do the job better and cheaper."
The drone program isn't just faulty -- it's also dangerous, Sledge writes. A Predator crashed in Nogales, Ariz., narrowly missing a cluster of homes. The National Transportation Safety Board criticizes CBP for its management of the drone program.
And the drone program raises civil rights concerns: It could "could turn the border into a virtual military zone and threaten civil liberties," writes Sledge:
In 2011, American Civil Liberties Union staff attorney Catherine Crump warned that expanded drone use without additional safeguards "could easily lead to police fishing expeditions and invasive, all-encompassing surveillance that would seriously erode the privacy that we have always had as Americans."
Border security is important, and it's great to see progress on immigration reform after decades of deadlock. But it's important to make sure that policy makers don't go for a technology quick-fix. Before expanding the nation's drone program, advocates need to demonstrate that drones are effective, safe, and respect civil liberties.
I would have suggested two or three years ago that legalizing drugs is a pipe dream. But I would never have thought then that legalizing marijuana would have gotten as far as it has.
mpouraryan - Yes, we direly need some checks and balances on the proces of drone assassination. Right now, there is a strong danger that a sitting President could use the tools to assasinate political enemies.
I agree...and I fear that we're already there..This is especially as the recent stories have come out about the President and the Adminstration on "Kill Lists".....
A recent public poll in Florida found that the majority of people did not want pot legalized, even for medical use, despite all the benefits it has for everything from glaucoma to cancer to neurological diseases, PTSD, and a ton of other things we're only starting to discover. Yet when my FL friend's mother was dying of cancer and fading away, the doctors prescribed THC in tablet form... go figure.
Don't get me started on Ellis Island and immigration policy, and...
Do you know, US immigration stills requires full medicals for people "arriving" in the country, to ensure they're not harboring certain diseases? All well and good, but "arriving" includes people being awarded permanent residency. I had to have a full medical -- then a second one, because the INS lost the first one -- even though I had been living here a full ten years at the time.
Ludicrous. You also have to fill in forms telling them what "vessel" you arrived on. I am not kidding.
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Catch up on the week with one simple serving of Friday File. We've pieced together 10 interesting news bites you may have missed and put them together in bite-size morsels.
I've been excited by a few technology announcements, and bored by many, but Google's I/O announcement this week is the first where I found myself getting choked up and teary.
What's the prognosis for telehealth? Medical professionals have technologies they need; some state legislatures are enacting supportive laws, and both employers and employees tout the benefits. Yet other states have let proposals wither, insurers aren't sure how to charge for services, and physicians worry about liability and patient care.
US counterterrorism expert Richard Clarke, who came to prominence with his prescient warnings before the 9/11 attacks, tells Smithsonian Magazine the US was responsible for the Stuxnet supersmart worm that attacked parts of nuclear reactors in Iran – and in the process, has given away one of the world's most sophisticated cyberweapons.
Is China a threat because it censors US sites, or could it be that the country might have an economic formula that will out-innovate us on the Internet that we invented?
ITRC found that more than 600 security breaches took place in 2012. Flaws were found in some of the nation's most respected companies: Apple, Citibank, and Wells Fargo. So, it seems the bad guys are doing better than the men in the white hats.
Congress is considering a bill to extend a moratorium on Internet regulation changes for two years. But with issues like service quality, cloud performance, and privacy looming, we risk contaminating the Internet with fraud.
The new Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) initiative of operators is being run out of Europe's ETSI and not here in the United States, even though the issues have been here for five years. The US needs to step up; otherwise, it's surrendering leadership.
New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority is conducting a pilot test of digital kiosks to guide subway users to where they want to go more efficiently and at lower cost.
The whole Amazon.reader debate is a double-stupid. It's stupid to think that there's any e-book buyer who doesn't know Amazon's URL, and it was stupider to let ICANN launch the whole free-form TLD initiative to start with.
While NFC's original goal was to enhance mobile commerce applications, it is finding its way into a number of other uses, which is creating both opportunity as well as challenges for IT departments.
Enterprises would like to move to cloud computing but are hesitant because they are concerned about providers’ ability to secure company data. Here are some tips that help to ensure that if breaches occur, the business is not left holding the bag.
Edmunds separates customers into segments based on the info it collects on its site and from partners, and uses that to push out custom content, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
The automotive website uses propensity modeling to target ads and customer registration forms, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
Subsidized handsets, rather than locked handsets, should be the focus of regulators. We're not getting good deals, not fostering innovation, and weakening our power as buyers.
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