cannabisnews.com: Border Patrol Takes To The Air 





Border Patrol Takes To The Air 
Posted by FoM on January 08, 2002 at 07:41:12 PT
By Ken Kolker, The Grand Rapids Press 
Source: Grand Rapids Press 
In response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the U.S. Border Patrol will take to the air for the first time in Michigan to catch illegal aliens coming in from Canada, agency officials said.The agency's state headquarters in Detroit has been given approval to hire a pilot to fly border patrol, said state Chief Patrol Agent Dan Geoghegan.
Geoghegan said he hopes to hire a pilot within several months and start flying sometime this year. He's not sure whether his office will get a small, fixed-wing plane or a helicopter.The Border Patrol, the enforcement arm of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), will use the aircraft to fly patrols along the Canadian border, Geoghegan said.The pilot, who must have three years of border patrol experience, will focus on the main entry points into Michigan from Canada -- the Detroit River between Detroit and Windsor, the St. Clair River south from Port Huron, and in the Sault Ste. Marie area in the Upper Peninsula, he said.The aircraft would be used for routine patrols and surveillance as well as specific assignments, such as when the Border Patrol gets a tip about aliens entering the country, Geoghegan said."We'll have to determine how to best use it," he said. "If you have only one pilot, a fella can't fly 24 hours a day. We'll have to decide whether you run one particular shift or disperse it to different times and different places."Geoghegan said the move "stems from the heightened state of alert since Sept. 11," even though none of the 19 terrorists involved in the attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C., was believed to have crossed the U.S.-Canada border.Before Sept. 11, more than half of the 113 ports of entry along the Canadian border were unmanned. Now, they are staffed around the clock by U.S. Customs agents.Last month, Congress passed legislation to roughly double the number of INS inspectors along the 4,000-mile Canadian border -- dubbed the longest unprotected border in the world -- and beef up Border Patrol and Customs personnel, although it would take about a year to get them on the job.In the meantime, the Department of Justice announced it would send about 500 National Guard troops to help on the northern border.The agency also expects to add border patrol agents this year in Michigan, although Geoghegan said he doesn't know how many. His 40 agents are spread across the state, including an office in Holland.The Border Patrol has used planes along the Mexican border for years, flying low over fields where illegal aliens cross into the United States. Two planes and two pilots worked in Miami when Geoghegan was assigned there.Geoghegan said he recently met with volunteer members of the Michigan Civil Air Patrol, who offered to fly border patrols in Michigan. "They cordially made an offer to assist us in our mission," he said.He said he preferred his own aviation wing, although he didn't rule out asking the Civil Air Patrol for help in the future.Col. Stephen Rudowski, homeland defense coordinator for the Civil Air Patrol's Michigan wing, said he met with Geoghegan and others from the Border Patrol to offer help.The Civil Air Patrol, an auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, has two squadrons in Grand Rapids and six others in West Michigan, among 43 units in the state. Its nine small, fixed-wing Cessnas are stationed throughout the state, including one at the Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids.Volunteers search for missing planes, missing people and marijuana fields and help assess damages after tornadoes and other disasters."We're letting them know what our resources and capabilities are," Rudowski said. "We have a number of mission-qualified pilots and aircraft available. Within two hours, we could have nine of our corporate aircraft airborne for any mission required."Civil Air Patrol volunteers said they could fly other missions for homeland security -- taking detailed aerial photographs of damaged facilities, which they did after the attacks on the World Trade Center, or transporting blood and organs to attack victims.A member of one of the local Civil Air Patrol units said he's trying to recruit licensed pilots, especially those with planes, to help in any possible mission."We haven't got enough planes and pilots to go around," said Keith Sikkema, a communications officer with the Boulle-Norman Memorial Cadet Squadron of Grand Rapids.On Thursday, he passed out information about the CAP to pilots in a flying club at Riverview Airport in Jenison, he said.Source: Grand Rapids Press (MI)Author: Ken Kolker, The Grand Rapids PressPublished: Monday, January 7, 2002Copyright: 2002 Grand Rapids PressWebsite: http://www.gr.mlive.com/Contact: pulse ccmail.gr-press.comRelated Articles:U.S. Plans Stronger Border Security http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11467.shtmlU.S. Policy Not Limited To Bordershttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10450.shtmlOpen Borders are Early Casualties of Warhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10963.shtml 
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Comment #2 posted by mayan on January 08, 2002 at 08:35:52 PT
Too Big
That border's way too big to guard by any means. It would be much easier to just start treating the earth & it's peoples with love & respect. And what about the murderers in D.C. who are already here?Petition the U.S. Senate to investigate what really went down on 9/11:
http://www.petitiononline.com/11601TFS/petition.html
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Scary Concept of Death
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