Legislators pressing for the expanded use of integrated radar and camera systems are calling the technology a gentle way of enforcing immigration laws and a necessary tool to stop drug and human smuggling into Arizona.

“This is probably one of the most humane things to come before us concerning illegal immigration,” said Rep. Bob Robson, R-20, adding that the movement of organized crime across the border is creating an “alarming rate” of drugs that are entering Arizona neighborhoods.

“This will save lives over the long run and save dollars,” he said.

One proposal, H2578, sponsored by Rep. Russell Pearce, R- 18, would allocate $50 million of state funds to the Department of Emergency and Military Affairs to install ground radar and integrated camera systems along the border with Mexico. Another similar measure presented by Sen. Tim Bee, R-30, recently passed the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Integrated ground radar and camera systems are being used by U.S. Marine Corps at the Barry M. Goldwater Range in southern Arizona, where keeping illegal immigrants from trekking through the bombing range has become a high priority.

The Marines’ portion of the range, which spans from Yuma to 25 miles east of Gila Bend, is just six miles north the international border. Trespassers in 2004 had caused the loss of 1,250 military training hours, or 50 training days, according to a U.S. House Report.

The canceling of training exercises to avoid harming people on the range is costly in terms of money and military preparedness, not to mention dangerous for pilots who must land with unexploded ordnance, said Larry Pike, a lobbyist for Sensor Technologies & Systems, Inc., a Scottsdale-based company that has designed the systems in place.

GlobalSecurity.org, a Web site specializing in international defense and intelligence issues, reports that 95 percent of all fighter pilots who flew in the Gulf War trained at the site.

In September, Mr. Pike brought Reps. Pearce; House Speaker Jim Weiers, R-10, Steve Tully, R-11, Tom Boone, R-4, Amanda Aguirre, D-24, and Sens. Jim Waring, R-7; and Tim Bee, R-30, to the site to observe the system and be briefed by Marine Col. Ben Hancock on the reported effectiveness of the radar system.

Debate hinged on $50 million price tag

Debate against Mr. Pearce’s bill during a Feb. 9 Committee of the Whole was marked by concerns of the cost and taxpayer burden associated with a $50 million appropriation, and the overall effectiveness of such a program given the magnitude of the problem of illegal immigration.

“You’ll never close the border,” said Rep. Ben Miranda, D-16, who compared the attempt to American difficulties shutting the Ho Chi Minh Trail during the Vietnam War. “It will never be done.”

Rep. Steve Gallardo, D-23, a frequent critic of immigration proposals by Mr. Pearce, said the bill was unfair because it targeted the supply of illegal immigrants while turning a blind eye to the source of the problem — American industries’ appetite for labor.

Enhanced measures to keep illegal immigrants from crossing into Arizona are necessary to protect the health care industry and to prevent crime such as auto theft, said Mr. Pearce, a former Mesa policeman.

“Non-action is what’s unacceptable,” he said.

Despite some opposition, the measure was approved by the Committee of the Whole.

How it works

The product designed by STS, which has hundreds of similar systems guarding other U.S. installations, ports and also Israeli settlements in disputed territories, scans in a 360-degree area for objects moving closer or further or across the radar’s rotating area of perception, said STS product manager Jack Dehait.

When motion is detected by the radar the system automatically coordinates the integrated camera and the operator is able to zoom in and out or left to right to survey the area marked by either global positioning or topographical features, he said.

The listed range for the STS equipment used by the Marines for detecting moving targets is 5 kilometers for people or 10 kilometers for vehicles, but in ideal conditions of little humidity and flat landscape without large vegetation, the detection distance is greater. A kilometer is approximately six-tenths of a mile.

Marines monitoring the system operate on an “observe and report” basis, said Mr. Pike, meaning the soldiers inform the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Yuma Sector agency, which confronts incoming or existing intruders.

While underground sensors can lead border enforcement agencies after illegitimate targets such as migrating animals, integrated radar and camera systems allow its users to visually examine the person or people to determine if they are armed smugglers or simply migrating people looking for work, he said.

“It provides risk assessment and time to react,” he said. “It gives the responders the information they need.”

The Yuma Sector

The U.S. Marine Corps at the range declined to comment on the effectiveness of the system, though Agent Michael Gramley of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Yuma Sector praised it as “very effective in assisting apprehensions in the area.”

He also cautioned that a number of factors have contributed to the rapid rise of the number of apprehensions in the Yuma Sector’s 118-mile-stretch that includes the bombing range, most notably the March 2004 Arizona Border Control Initiative of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The initiative increased the number of border patrol agents in the Tucson Sector, Arizona’s most popular corridor for illegal immigrants, and caused immigrants and smugglers to shift their routes to the Yuma Sector, which also benefited from increased staffing and resources such as fences and vehicle guards, he said.

In 2005 there were 138,460 apprehensions in the Yuma Sector, compared to 98,060 during the prior year. U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized 56,638 people illegally crossing in 2003 and 42,654.

The Yuma Sector does not keep records distinguishing trespassers nabbed due to alerting calls from the Marines at the Barry M. Goldwater Range, said Mr. Gramley.

Other voices

Governor Napolitano outlined a $100 million border plan in her State of the State address, and $8 million of that is earmarked for “border security and technology,” according to her executive budget summary for fiscal 2007, which begins July 1, 2006.

Using funds from the $8 million, which would require legislative approval, to buy radar systems would qualify as a “permissible use” of the funds, said Jeanine L’Ecuyer, press secretary for Ms. Napolitano.

U.S. Rep. J.D. Hayworth, of Arizona’s 5th Congressional District, has also visited the Barry M. Goldwater Range and contacted U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, urging testing programs with integrated ground radar and camera systems.

“In discussing the effectiveness with the Marine Corps and local Border Patrol it seems clear that this new technology will reduce the need for manpower while vastly improving effectiveness,” he stated in a letter to Mr. Chertoff.

Conceptually, ground radar and camera systems are an asset “we should look at,” said Frank Navarette, director of the Arizona Office of Homeland Security.