In a further crackdown on the northern border, federal authorities are planning to use a drone-like, unmanned aircraft to police the United States-Canada boundary between Michigan and Ontario.
The $10.5 million Predator aircraft, which flies at 19,000 fleet, carries no weapons, but it has an awesome camera that can spot a person crossing the border from 25 miles away, said Juan Munoz-Torres, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
“It’s a great platform,” Munoz-Torres said. “It’s very, very effective.”
There is no date for the aircraft to start its patrols. Munoz-Torres said the aircraft likely would be based in the Alpena area.
Customs and Border Protection has six unmanned aircraft. Four fly out of the southwest. One is out of service. The only one on the northern border began flights out of Grand Forks, N.D., in February. It patrols the prairie region.
Much of the public knows these aircraft as drones, like the ones the U.S. uses to hunt down Taliban militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan. But officials emphasized drones technically are unmanned aircraft used for military purposes.
The plans for an aircraft above the Great Lakes is part of a beefing up of surveillance along the 5,525-mile U.S.-Canada border, long known for its low level of security.
On Tuesday, officials said the U.S. Border Patrol is installing 11 video surveillance towers in metro Detroit. Agent Kurstan Rosberg said today those towers will be located mainly along the St. Clair River. None will be south of the extreme northern portion of Lake St. Clair.
In recent days, the North Dakota Predator has been helping fight the Red River flooding by sending back images that allow officials to gauge the river’s movement and assess damage.
The deployment of Predators to the northern border seems to have caught the attention of Canadians more than Americans.
Addressing “Canadians anxious about the thickening of our border with the United States” in the Toronto-based National Post, Raymond de Souza wrote:
“My home on Wolfe Island, Ontario, is less than 10 miles from the New York border. A Predator B drone on the south bank of the St. Lawrence River would have me under constant surveillance. I would regard that as an invasion of my civil liberties.”
Contact BILL McGRAW at bmcgraw@freepress.com.
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