(U.S. Customs and Border Protection)
Texas Gov. Rick Perry is
full of ideas on how to police the border:
"I mean, we know that there are Predator drones being flown for practice every day because we're seeing them, we're preparing these young people to fly missions in these war zones that we have. But some of those, they have all the equipment, they're obviously unarmed, they've got the downward-looking radar, they've got the ability to do night work and through clouds. Why not be flying those missions and using (that) real-time information to help our law-enforcement? Becuase if we will commit to that, I will suggest to you that we will be able to drive the drug cartels away from our border."
There's just one little thing: Customs and Border Protection is already using drones along the border. In fact, while the program that's been going on since 2005 is run out of Arizona, Corpus Christi, Texas is slated to become a base for a new remotely piloted aircraft starting this year.
While the Texas governor has famously little power, surely Perry has the power to know about publicly reported border patrol efforts in his own state.