Predator Drones Shift from Battlefield to Border

(CBS)  Guarding the Mexican border is paramount to our national security, but there just aren't enough agents to patrol the entire 2,000-mile stretch. As a result, the Department of Homeland Security is now using a new tool that's proved very effective overseas: predator drones.

(Scroll down to watch a video of this story)

From four miles up, smuggling along the Mexican border comes in various forms: illegal immigrants sneaking through the brush, a drug-running, ultra-light airplane heading toward Tucson, Ariz., a Black Hawk helicopter corralling a group of border crossers. Those scenes are all seen by a predator remote-controlled aircraft armed with high-powered cameras, CBS News Correspondent Bob Orr reports.

Dave Gasho runs the predators for U.S. Customs and Border Protection at a barren base in Arizona.

Pilots "fly" the planes from a trailer on the tarmac.

"Most people coming across the border are either migrants or drug smugglers," said Gasho. "We don't know who they are. They could be terrorists. They could be people who have intentions of harm against the United States."

Predators are best known for tracking and killing terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Here, on the U.S. border, they are used strictly for surveillance.

CBS News spoke with Gasho as a predator watched from above.

"I'm pretty sure they'll be able to tell you're wearing a blue shirt, tan slacks, I'm in a flight suit with a black hat," said Gasho. "They can see that."

Gasho said people trying to sneak across the border would be plainly visible to the drones, giving federal agents an advantage to get in position to intercept them.

Policing the 2,000-mile-long border with Mexico is more than a full-time job for some 17,000 U.S. Border Patrol agents, but the predators help shrink that challenge. They're able to peer miles into Mexico.

For agents like Colleen Agle, the predator serves as high-tech backup.

"They can make a rapid identification and classification of what exactly is there so that we know what kind of law enforcement response we need to make," Agle said.

Three of the aircraft fly along the Mexican border. Two patrol the Canadian border, and one cruises over the Caribbean.

In the last five years, predators have helped net 40,000 pounds of drugs and nab 7,000 illegal immigrants, according to Homeland Security.

"We are expanding the manpower resources," Gasho said.

Gasho wants more pilots to keep the predators flying around the clock, saying nothing else provides this kind of immediate intelligence.

"My boss in Washington, D.C., can log on and say, 'What are we looking at right now?'" Gasho said.

The picture is fed in real time to the command center.

The program is expensive. Each predator costs around $18 million and the aircraft has limits. They are only cleared to fly inside a narrow zone along the border and can't fly at all in bad weather. Still, to Gasho, the air fleet is essential.

"This is sovereign U.S. soil, and I think we need to defend it as such," Gasho said.

And Congress is sold. A fourth predator is on its way to the Mexican border.

More on Drones in U.S.

Errant Drone near D.C. almost Shot Down
U.S. Expands Use of Drones over Southern Border
FAA Pressed to Allow Drone Flights in U.S.

[oneflyerguy1993]

You guys call yourselves professional journalists?? Embarrassing.....

Your stock footage was almost entirely of the MQ-1B Predator A UAS, used by the USAF for COMBAT operations. You are doing a report about the MQ-9 Predator B, which in its military version is known as the "Reaper". Yet you continued to show clips of the much smaller, Predator A flying along when you very clearly were referring to the Predator B flown by the USCBP aviation division. Two completely different aircraft.

If you had actually done some research and checked your own work, you might have figured this out. Why you people don't consult aviation professionals BEFORE you release these stories is beyond me.

[spacechild]

A little bit of intability in the market eh. Well thats ok cause the Fed has a hunred trllion in gold bullion at Ft.Knox.
Ah man I let the cat out of the bag again.
If they downgraded it a single A we would be getting $2500 an ounce.
Those S&P guys are of their rocker allright but where there is loss there is gain.

[spacechild]

With the capability of the infra-red and whatever maybe even ex-ray camera system these drones should have a program that can distinguish between a dime and a quarter on the ground. They should be able to tell you the molecular weight of the object also.
Another capability that would be nice if the camera and program could lock onto a certain RPG or STA Missile so it could give advance warning of imenant danger to the troops in Afganistan or wherever it is being used. Focus on the war the economy will take care of itself as long as you keep those S&P guys out of it.

[NicoIllinois14]

Here at the University of Illinois I have been studying the Predator Drones that are being used by the U.S.
In my studies i have found that these drones were first used as observation droids that would just try and spot out specific terrain features and things of that nature. Now those drones have been armed with Hellfire missiles and many civilians have been killed because of their use. With drones patrolling the borders for their observation technology, how long is it until they become weapons again like they were in the Middle East. I do not believe this is a good or safe idea to use these drones in any sort of way around our borders.

[rightbehind]

These drones need to be stopped immediately. Our liberty is now being tested. The thieves wanting to take away our liberty is now knocking at the door and we the tax payers have bought them the weapons to do it at 18 million a copy plus support cost. All of these drones can be replace by cheap tethered balloons with cameras and cover more area at a fraction of the cost which means more personnel could be hired to stop the illegals rather than watch them. More eyes in the sky. The US is not a war zone. Let's not give our government the ability to make it one.

[brande77]

Predators are attack UAV's. The reporter better learn the correct terms before saying we are using "predators" on the border, followed by "non-attack uav's" which one is it then? MQ-1 predators are armed with hellfire missles.

[tsigili]

We need a lot more of them, on the Mexican border.

[darwufche]

Why aren't these drones being sent to Afganistan where the real need is?
We need to protect our troops instead of worrying about keeping Mexican people from trying to better their lives.

[irreverent1-2009]

Someday one of these drones will either go down or get shot down by the cartels and they will be selling it to the highest bidder unless it has a fail safe self destruct mechanism built in to it.

[jaqued]

If you know the enemy and know yourself, your victory will not stand in doubt; if you know Heaven and know Earth, you may make your victory complete.
- Sun Tzu

These drones carry better optics and heat detection devices than similar hand carried versions. They are flown by specialist who have used them in combat. They have a long view, long dwell time, never sleep, and by vitue of "seeing miles" in to Mexico provide warning and diretion to allow law enforcement to border crossers to be met at the border and turned back. The drones make Sun Tzu's principle to "know Heaven and know Earth" possible. This, at last, is a worth while return on our tax dollar. It is not cost effective for one of these expensive drones to waste time looking in your backyard when the job is at the border. Frankly, if I owned a ranch on the border I'd be overjoyed they were up there preventing some human or drug trafficer shooting me on my own land.