Are Border Fences Americas Only Hope at Halting Illegal Immigration

Are Border Fences America's Only Hope at Halting Illegal Immigration Despite spending over $4 billion on border fencing, 1,300 miles of the US-Mexico Border remains open to defectors. The majority of illegal immigrants entering the United States do so through the country’s southern border from Mexico, a boundary stretching almost 2,000 miles from California to Texas.   As of February 2012, the United States has constructed 651 miles of fencing along the US-Mexican border, covering just over 33% of the total length of the boundary. A U.S Government Accountability Office report in 2011 found the U.S Border Patrol had “operational control” of 873 miles of the US-Mexico border, but with over 50% of the international border unprotected by fencing and more than $4.5 billion spent constructing more fences in the past five years, are fences America’s best option at halting illegal immigration? Lower estimates derived from recent fencing projects implemented by U.S Border Control put the cost of one mile of fencing at roughly $16 million. With 1,300 miles still fenceless and open to Mexican defectors, estimates show the total cost of fencing the remaining border at over $22 billion, a figure which does not take into account land acquisition costs or fence maintenance. As more illegal immigrants enter the United States, the idea of a physical border is becoming less and less pragmatic during times of economic recovery, but what other options does the United States government have to stop illegal immigration? The increase in drone and UAV aircrafts by the U.S military in recent years sheds light on a new option to beef up border security. Currently the United States has roughly 680 drones, 172 of which are Predator drones, an unmanned aircraft which is used for air-to ground combat, surveillance and intelligence all over the world;  however, the weapons on the aircraft can be removed. Drone usage has been on the rise by the military as the United States gathers more information on potential national security threats, with the added benefit being that drones eliminate the loss of human life when gathering intelligence. A U.S. Air Force MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicle.Photo Credit: U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Stanley Thompson Predator drones cost a little over $4 million per aircraft, but recent technology has drastically improved their ability to see a full picture of the area they are scanning. The development of the ARGUS sensor (Autonomous Real-Time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance) by multinational defense company BAE Systems brings UAV surveillance to levels never seen before. The ARGUS sensor can be mounted on any Predator drone and is equipped with 368 cell phone cameras, enabling the sensor to mold together a 1.8 billion pixel video that spans fifteen square miles. With the highest quality video ever produced available to Predator drone operators in real time, the ARGUS sensor has the ability to pinpoint every moving human being in the fifteen square mile area with colored squares, zooming close enough to watch a solitary bird soar across the sky. Surveillance of the remaining open regions of the U.S-Mexico border could be conducted with the use of just under 100 Predator drones, each equipped with an ARGUS sensor. The cost of manufacturing the necessary drones hovers around $400 million, less than 2% of the lowest estimate cost of constructing fencing on the rest of the United States’ southern border. While the estimated total cost of manufacturing the Predator drones needed does not take into account the cost of the ARGUS sensors and drone operators, Predator drones clearly are winning the battle of the most cost-effective options to sure up America’s southern border and put a stop to illegal immigration.