The US has unveiled an unlikely weapon in its battle against drug gangs and illegal immigrants at the Texas-Mexico border — pubgoers in Australia.
The drinkers are the most far-flung of a sizeable army of high-tech foot soldiers recruited to assist the border protection effort.
Anyone with an Internet connection can now help to patrol the 2,018km frontier through a network of Webcams set up to allow the public to monitor suspicious activity. Once logged in, the volunteers spend hours studying the landscape and are encouraged to e-mail authorities when they see anyone on foot, in vehicles or aboard boats heading toward US territory from Mexico.
So far, more than 100,000 Web users have signed up online to become virtual border patrol deputies, said Don Reay, executive director of the Texas Border Sheriffs’ Coalition, which represents 20 counties where illegal crossings and drugs and weapons smuggling are rife.
“We had folks send an e-mail saying, in good Australian fashion, ‘Hey mate, we’ve been watching your border for you from the pub in Australia,’” he said.
Since the first 15 of a planned network of 200 cameras went live in November, officials claim that e-mailed tips have led to the seizure of more than 907kg of marijuana and 30 incidents in which “significant numbers” of would-be illegal immigrants were spotted and turned back. Some tips came from Europe, Asia and beyond, but most online watchers are based in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, three of the four US states that share a border with Mexico.
The cameras, which are positioned on private land at locations along the border favored by illegal immigrants and drug traffickers, were paid for by a US$2 million state grant, which includes money for the accompanying Web site operated as a private-public partnership by social networking company BlueServo.
Opponents have dismissed the project as “the perfect Google border” and say the cameras do little to deter criminal activity.
“Border security deserves trained professionals, not pubgoers in Perth,” said Eliot Shapleigh, a state senator from El Paso, Texas, who claims that the program has resulted in only a handful of arrests. “It’s wholly ineffective for the governor’s stated goal of security, it panders to extremists for political purposes and it’s not an effective use of US$2 million for just three apprehensions.”
Shapleigh said he and fellow Democratic party members plan to oppose the renewal of funding for the cameras later this year.
But Bob Parker, a retired US coastguard captain who spends up to eight hours a day at his computer looking into Mexico, says it is important to keep eyes on the border.
“It’s wild country out there with all the drugs violence,” he said. “It’s just a question of time before that comes here.”
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to