Blimp to help Border Patrol spot illegal activity in desert

SANTA TERESA, N.M. (Border Report) – The U.S. Border Patrol has deployed its new high-tech aerostat blimp over the desert of southern New Mexico.

The low-altitude guardian boasts and array of high-definition “smart” cameras and high-tech equipment to help border agents spot groups of migrants coming over the border wall and those whose lives are imperiled after falls or getting lost in the desert.

Juarez, Mexico-Santa Teresa, N.M., stretch of desert remains the most active migrant smuggling corridor between Far West Texas and the New Mexico-Arizona state line. The Border Patrol is reporting a record amount of encounters involving dead migrants since Oct.1: 171 fatalities as of Monday, compared to 149 in all of fiscal year 2023.

The Tactical Aerostat System blimp is tethered the Santa Teresa Border Patrol Station and relays information to operators who can then deploy border agents to illegal crossings from Mexico or to look for migrants in distress.

Most of the fatalities reported since June have occurred in the desert, as migrants unfamiliar with the terrain get lost on the way to smugglers’ pickup locations or fall behind a group and are abandoned by their “foot guides.”

The cameras on the aerostat are automated, which means they will zero-in and track a group once an incursion is detected. The Border Patrol on Monday allowed reporters to record images of the blimp but declined to answer questions such as how big it is or if its cameras can tell what is going on in Mexico, where the smugglers operate and transport to their side of the border wall the migrants they send across over ladders.

Three transnational criminal organizations have claimed control in Juarez over migrant smuggling. They are La Linea, La Empresa and the Sinaloa cartel, law enforcement officials have told Border Report. La Empresa is the group known to operate most often in the Santa Teresa area, and U.S. federal officials are currently prosecuting several suspects arrested in connection to migrant stash houses busted in nearby Sunland Park, N.M. In court documents, the stash houses have been linked to the group.

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