Reporting released last week could redefine the border issue for Republicans and worsen already negative views of the Biden-Harris administration’s handling of border security. An internal memo from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) obtained by NBC News revealed that 30% of the multi-billion dollar border surveillance system is non-functional.
“Nearly one-third of the cameras in the Border Patrol’s primary surveillance system along the southern U.S. border are not working, according to an internal agency memo sent in early October,” NBC News reported.
“The large-scale outage affects roughly 150 of the 500 cameras perched on surveillance towers along the U.S.-Mexico border.” According to the outlet “severe technical problems,” have beset the networked camera system known as the Remote Video Surveillance System. Border Patrol officials who spoke anonymously cast the blame on outdated equipment and outstanding repair issues.
The system has been in operation since 2011 and was designed to “survey large areas without having to commit hundreds of agents in vehicles to perform the same function.” Two CBP officials told NBC that while some repairs were affected in early October, more than 150 repair orders are still outstanding and some areas of the border are still not visible to CBP surveillance as a result.
A CBP spokesman told the outlet that 300 new towers using more advanced technology have been installed along the border, but didn’t address the gaps described by the anonymous officials.
“CBP continues to install newer, more advanced technology that embrace artificial intelligence and machine learning to replace outdated systems, reducing the need to have agents working non-interdiction functions,” the CBP spokesman said.
As reported by Reason, spiraling costs began with a $1 billion outlay in 2010 that notably led to a 2017 GAO report filled with damning internal and external assessments “regarding the performance, cost, and schedule for implementing the systems,” that resulted in the cancellation of future installations of the SBInet systems.
In a similar accounting, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), addressing NBC News’ findings wrote, “U.S. Border Surveillance Towers Have Always Been Broken.”
EFF Director of Investigations Dave Maass wrote that the report is not a bombshell, but said, “What should actually be shocking is that Congressional leaders are acting shocked, like those who recently sent a letterabout the towers to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. These revelations simply reiterate what people who have been watching border technology have known for decades: Surveillance at the U.S.-Mexico border is a wasteful endeavor that is ill-equipped to respond to an ill-defined problem.”
Maas referred to a 2021 study from the DHS Inspector General which indicated that the situation had not improved.
“CBP faced additional challenges that reduced the effectiveness of its existing technology. Border Patrol officials stated they had inadequate personnel to fully leverage surveillance technology or maintain current information technology systems and infrastructure on site. Further, we identified security vulnerabilities on some CBP servers and workstations not in compliance due to disagreement about the timeline for implementing DHS configuration management requirements.
CBP is not well-equipped to assess its technology effectiveness to respond to these deficiencies. CBP has been aware of this challenge since at least 2017 but lacks a standard process and accurate data to overcome it.
Overall, these deficiencies have limited CBP’s ability to detect and prevent the illegal entry of noncitizens who may pose threats to national security.”
A set of follow-up plans, the Arizona Border Surveillance Technology Plan and the Southwest Border Technology Plan, then came into effect priced at approximately $6 billion and were successfully combined into the Integrated Surveillance Towers network in 2022. But the integration of these systems has evidently had little effect. With Maas noting, “Border authorities and their supporters in Congress are continuing to promote unproven, AI-driven technologies as the latest remedy for years of failures, including the ones voiced in the memo obtained by NBC News.”
Federal agents at the border were busy earlier this month to stop dangerous drugs from escaping into American communities.
On September 23, Nogales Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Area Port Director Michael W. Humphries announced that his port of entry had seized more than 1.5 million fentanyl pills over four days at the start of the month.
According to Director Humphries, the pills were discovered and apprehended on September 5 (approximately 527,000 pills in a car), September 6 (approximately 1,000,000 pills in a car), and September 8 (approximately 55,000 pills in a car battery).
Just days after these seizures, Humphries revealed that his officers had encountered over 341 pounds of illegal meth on a rail box car.
In Fiscal Year 2024, the Tucson CPB Field Office and Tucson Sector have interdicted more than 30,000 pounds of fentanyl, with one month left in the twelve-month calendar. Last fiscal year, over 25,000 pounds of fentanyl were apprehended in that section of the border.
These seizures are only a fraction of the drugs escaping detection from law enforcement into communities all across the nation. In 2022, The Washington Postpublished an article about the proliferation of fentanyl from Mexico to the United States, citing estimations from unnamed federal drug agents that “they are seizing 5 to 10 percent of the drugs coming from Mexico – if that much.” The article also stated that “agents say it has been nearly impossible to stop fentanyl trafficking” at the border.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
The White House’s denial that migrants are walking across the border sparked backlash from Governor Doug Ducey and Border Patrol (BP) leaders.
This week, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre claimed that illegal immigrants don’t merely walk across the southern border. Fox News reporter Peter Doocy had asked Jean-Pierre why the unvaccinated traveling by plane were refused admission into the U.S. while unvaccinated illegal immigrants could walk into the U.S. and stay.
“It’s not like somebody walks over — that’s not how [it works],” responded Jean-Pierre.
Jean-Pierre’s denial prompted Ducey to call the White House “clueless.” He stated that the Biden administration’s negligence further affirmed his decision to finish Yuma’s border wall himself. The state closed those gaps last week.
“If only President Biden visited the border, he’d see the mass amount of migrants walking across the border,” wrote Ducey.
The denial prompted similar criticism from the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC). Jean-Pierre’s denial — along with discovery this week of BP Chief Raul Ortiz’s admission in July that Biden’s border policies lacked consequences for illegal immigration — prompted NBPC to demean the Biden administration as the “Barney Fife” administration, a slang term for ineptitude and incompetence.
“[This administration is] importing millions of fraudulent ‘asylum’ seekers,” declared the NBPC. “This mess will take decades to clean up, if it can ever be cleaned up.”
Along with the historic number of illegal crossings, there have been historic highs of drug trafficking. Earlier this month, Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) reported that fentanyl, meth, and heroin seizures increased greatly from June to July.
As AZ Free News reported at the beginning of this month, hard drugs have largely replaced marijuana for drug smugglers. The main substance seized by far is fentanyl.
What’s more, smugglers are now disguising fentanyl with rainbow coloring to look like candy or ecstasy, dubbed “rainbow fentanyl.” On Tuesday, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) issued an official warning that the rainbow fentanyl has been discovered in 18 states. Officials warned that drug traffickers are targeting children and young adults with the rainbow fentanyl to spark addiction.
It appears that the White House isn’t the only leadership sector apparently unconcerned with the state of the border. A source informed the Daily Caller on Monday that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was vacationing in Maine.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
The hot temperatures of June did not slow down the relentless flow of people hoping to enter the United States along the southwest border, according to data released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
While the majority of migrants crossing through Arizona are presenting themselves at CBP-operated ports of entry, there are still a number of people willing to pay big to be smuggled across remote areas along the border and then seek transportation to Tucson and Phoenix.
From Oct. 1, 2021 through June 30, 2022, U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) Yuma Sector reported more than 235,000 “encounters” – a nearly 300 percent explosion compared to the same eight months the prior fiscal year. The Tucson Sector reported more than 195,000 encounters so far this fiscal year, a 40 percent uptick.
Nationally, more than 1.6 million encounters were reported from October to June, compared to slightly more than 1 million the prior fiscal year. Those numbers only represent persons who turn themselves in to federal authorities or are intercepted by law enforcement.
However, the data does not represent the experiences faced by law enforcement officials, residents of border communities, and business owners. Which is why USBP Yuma Sector Chief Chris Clem and Yuma County Sheriff Leon Wilmot are offering law enforcement agencies across the country a firsthand look of the southwest border.
Last week the lawmen hosted two sheriffs from South Dakota, one day after Clem took to Twitter to announce USBP’s capture of Eloy Tecuanhuehue Hueyopa, a convicted sex offender previously removed by U.S. immigration officials. Clem noted that during his agents’ contact with Hueyopa they learned he had an extraditable warrant from the State of Indiana in a child molestation case.
And the week before, USBP agents assigned to Yuma Sector’s Wellton Station worked with a Border Patrol Search, Trauma, and Rescue (BORSTAR) unit as well as agents with CBP’s Air and Marine Operations to locate an 11-year-old boy who had been left in the rugged desert by his smuggler.
Many of those bypassing formal immigration channels are doing so in Cochise County, often wearing camouflaged clothing. Agents with USBP’s Tucson Sector are working with local, county, and state law enforcement personnel to address a growing lawlessness in the region fueled by Arizonans -mostly from Maricopa County- who come to the area to engage in human smuggling.
Earlier this month 15-year-old Emiliano Villalobos of Phoenix was arraigned on felony charges including aggravated assault on a park ranger with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management stemming from a traffic stop just a few miles from the international border near Bisbee. A 9mm handgun and four undocumented non-U.S. citizens were found in the car Villalobos was driving.
Villalobos is being prosecuted as an adult on two aggravated assault counts and unlawful possession of a deadly weapon by a minor. He remains in the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office in lieu of a $50,000 secured appearance bond and is scheduled for an Aug. 19 pretrial conference in advance of a Dec. 5 speedy trial deadline.
Court records show Villalobos was driving a Honda Accord on June 24 when federal agents initiated a traffic stop after several people were seen getting into the vehicle shortly after 8 a.m. The Honda was traveling on a side road approaching State Route 92, a busy road which connects the Bisbee / Naco border area to Sierra Vista.
A BLM Park Ranger, identified only as T.B., maneuvered his marked government vehicle in order to block the Honda’s ability to reach SR92. As the Honda approached, the ranger exited his vehicle and drew his weapon in preparation of the traffic stop.
The Honda initially stopped but then without warning the driver accelerated, spinning the car’s tires for nearly 20 feet in the direction of the ranger, according to a statement of probable cause authored by CCSO Deputy Marcus Gerow in support of Villalobos’ arrest.
“Ranger (T.B.) began backing up in fear of being hit by the vehicle,” Gerow wrote. “Ranger (T.B.) was about to discharge his weapon when the vehicle came to a stop.”
A search of the Honda after Villalobos and his passengers were taken into custody revealed the driver was in possession of a concealed Springfield XD 933 handgun with a full magazine and one round chambered.
The prosecution of Villalobos is just one of nearly 200 cases related to human smuggling that have been initiated by Cochise County Attorney Brian McIntyre since last summer. Most of the charges involve low-level felonies, but two Maricopa County residents are awaiting trial on murder charges in unrelated human smuggling incidents.
In January 2021, William Maurice Brown of Mesa on probation out of Maricopa County for felony aggravated assault when he attempted to flee from USBP agents in southern Cochise County while transporting several undocumented border crossers.
Brown drove his pickup at highspeed through a roundabout when the vehicle flipped, leaving two migrants dead. He is charged with 15 felonies including first degree murder, endangerment, and unlawful flight.
Another defendant indicted on a murder charge is Felix Mendez, who was 16 when he drove from Maricopa County on Oct. 30, 2021 to engage in human smuggling.
Court records show Mendez failed to stop for a USBP vehicle , then drove at high speed through a redlight at an intersection with three Mexican nationals on board. A Benson woman who had the right of way was killed instantly when her vehicle was broadsided by Mendez’s car. She was heading to her birthday party, according to public records released by Homeland Security Investigations.