{"id":17992,"date":"2019-02-09T22:03:33","date_gmt":"2019-02-10T03:03:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/donald-trumps-wall-how-tech-guards-the-us-mexico-border\/"},"modified":"2019-02-09T22:03:33","modified_gmt":"2019-02-10T03:03:33","slug":"donald-trumps-wall-how-tech-guards-the-us-mexico-border","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/?p=17992","title":{"rendered":"Donald Trump&#8217;s wall: How tech guards the US-Mexico border"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Donald Trump&#039;s wall: How tech guards the US-Mexico border                                   <\/p>\n<figure>                  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/p0707yml-1.jpg\" \/>             Media playback is unsupported on your device<figcaption>Media captionWATCH: Nick Kwek toured the border dividing the US state of Arizona and Mexico&#039;s Sonora<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&quot;We gotta get outta here!&quot; cries Agent Daniel Hernandez of US Border Patrol.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Moments earlier a hurled rock from over the fence whacked the tin roof next to us with an almighty thud. Its target: Agent Hernandez, my camerawoman and yours truly.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;You gotta limit your exposure when you&#039;re there by the International Fence, you know,&quot; says Agent Hernandez, once we&#039;re safely back in his truck.<\/p>\n<p>I do now.<\/p>\n<p>We are in southern Arizona at the Nogales Border Crossing checkpoint.<\/p>\n<p>While President Trump demands a wall costing several billions of dollars, and the Democrats suggest technology would be better suited to the job, we are being given a whistle-stop tour of some of the tech already in use within Arizona&#039;s Tucson Sector.<\/p>\n<p>As we ride around, Agent Hernandez  tells me his Southwest Border sector has 262 miles (422km) of border fencing with Mexico, but thousands of miles of patrol area.<\/p>\n<p>Recently his team enhanced its surveillance abilities by upgrading their Integrated Fixed Towers, also known as IFTs &#8211; almost everything is abbreviated by US government employees.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/business-47119459\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mexican economic plan aims to cut migration<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-us-canada-46824649\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Trump&#039;s border wall in seven charts<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-us-canada-47111913\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">US-Mexico border: Pentagon to deploy extra troops<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The structures are up to 180ft (55m) tall and are laden with sensors at their top.<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>                 Image caption                                      The IFTs are used to detect, identify and track illegal border crossings                              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The update means they are now equipped with longer-range video cameras, better thermal imaging cameras, and radar to provide 24\/7 high altitude points of view for officers back at the Nogales Control Center.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Before we&#039;d see some pixellation,&quot; Agent Hernandez explains.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;The cameras, due to their remote placements, were difficult to focus from far away, but now we have really high resolution, crisp images.&quot; <\/p>\n<p>He goes on: &quot;We&#039;re able to identify things that come over the fence, people that come over the fence, contraband that comes over the fence, a lot quicker and at greater distances.&quot;<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>                 Image caption                                      The Tucson Sector is one of the busiest parts of the US&#039;s south-west border                              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Agent Hernandez slows the car to a stop, leaning forward in his seat and peers out into the hills.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I believe there&#039;s one person under that tree. He&#039;s a human smuggler scout,&quot; he declares.<\/p>\n<p>He points at the man dressed in brown clothing and a hat, sitting a few yards beyond the fence.<\/p>\n<p>Agent Hernandez may be hawk-eyed, but come nightfall a scout like this would be tricky to see, even for him. The IFTs though apparently help his team catch camouflaged crossers.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;We might not see them, but our thermal cameras allow us to see. Our tech helps us stay one step above the criminal element.&quot;<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>                 Image caption                                      There are gaps in the border fence to help minimise erosion caused by water and debris during flash floods                              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>We travel down the winding road to Mariposa Wash, an area where there is a 1m gap between the fence&#039;s bottom and the ground.<\/p>\n<p>The gap is there to prevent erosion from water, but it means a person could easily duck underneath. <\/p>\n<p>&quot;We don&#039;t want people thinking this is the only thing keeping America safe,&quot; comments Agent Hernandez, patting the suspended barrier.<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>                 Image caption                                      Handprints had been left on the fence from people trying to climb over it                              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&quot;We have fencing as a tool &#8211; but this is by no means meant to keep people in or out.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>A few minutes up the road and the steel fencing stops, only to be replaced by sticks, cattle wire and Normandy-style barriers.<\/p>\n<p>It looks very makeshift, but this style of vehicle fencing stretches out across a large portion of Arizona&#039;s border with Mexico.<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>                 Image caption                                      The border divide looks very make-do in parts                              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Instead of fencing, border agents have a range of other tools in their arsenal.<\/p>\n<p>I am told sensors are buried in the ground around the area, which trigger an alarm if someone or something big enough passes nearby.<\/p>\n<p>Mobile Surveillance Trucks are also in use where there is uneven terrain and the towers cannot be built.<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>                 Image caption                                      Camera-equipped vans are used to patrol the area                              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>They are equipped with the same technology as the IFTs, but have thermal rangefinders that enable remote operators to measure the distance between themselves and people crossing.<\/p>\n<p>They also have laser pointers to direct agents in the field to hidden targets at night.<\/p>\n<p>From the truck&#039;s extendable mast, they can shine a beam of light on to a suspect so agents wearing night-vision goggles can physically find them.<\/p>\n<p>US Customs and Border Protection has also begun testing drones equipped with infrared and facial recognition cameras to monitor the land from above.<\/p>\n<p>Agent Hernandez tells me his team is currently trialling an Android-based location-tracking app, so agents can keep tabs of each others&#039; whereabouts in real-time.<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>                 Image caption                                      More than 4,000 border patrol agents cover the Tucson Sector                              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In 2017, Agent Hernandez&#039;s team arrested 40,000 people attempting to cross illegally into the United States.<\/p>\n<p>But of course it&#039;s not always criminals that get caught in the net. <\/p>\n<p>The recent migrant caravans &#8211; in which hundreds of people travel together &#8211; have highlighted how many families are willing to undertake a perilous journey in hope of a better life in the States. <\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>                 Image caption                                      The BBC&#039;s Nick Kwek with Agent Hernandez                              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Many families have been separated at the border, and two children have died since being detained by authorities.<\/p>\n<p>For Agent Hernandez, he says he&#039;s just doing his job.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;No matter what side of the spectrum you fall on, border security is important for the entire country&quot; he says.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;We&#039;re law enforcement officers, we don&#039;t dictate the laws, we enforce the laws. <\/p>\n<p>&quot;The best way to enforce the laws is by doing it in most effective and efficient way, and technology allows us to do that.&quot; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Donald Trump&#039;s wall: How tech guards the US-Mexico border<\/p>\n<p> Media playback is unsupported on your device<\/p>\n<p> Media captionWATCH: Nick Kwek toured the border dividing the US state of Arizona and Mexico&#039;s Sonora<br \/>\n&#8220;We gotta get outta here!&#8221; cries Agent Daniel Hernandez of US Border Patrol.<br \/>\nMoments earlier a hurled rock from over the fence whacked the tin roof next to us with an almighty thud. Its target: Agent Hernandez, my camerawoman and yours truly.<br \/>\n&#8220;You gotta limit your exposure when you&#039;re there by the International Fence, you know,&#8221; says Agent Hernandez, once we&#039;re safely back in his truck.<br \/>\nI do now.<br \/>\nWe are in southern Arizona at the Nogales Border Crossing checkpoint.<\/p>\n<p>While President Trump demands a wall costing several billions of dollars, and the Democrats suggest technology would be better suited to the job, we are being given a whistle-stop tour of some of the tech already in use within Arizona&#039;s Tucson Sector.<br \/>\nAs we ride around, Agent Hernandez tells me ..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17993,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17992\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}