A border discussion outside PARF?

[rfuerst911sc]

If you believe the stats in this link we have aprox. 20,000 border agents with aprox. 2,000 of them stationed along the northern border . I found the stats and article interesting to read .


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Border_Patrol

[Tervuren]

Originally Posted by fintstone

I imagine that those miners preferred the known risk of black lung to the known risk of starving. How does your overpriced wind or solar power feed their families?

Of course the materials used for solar cells have to be mined...just like coal:
Chemicals used in Manufacturing Solar Panels

That mining has health hazards as well.

You do realize that during manufacture and after the disposal of solar panels, they release hazardous chemicals including cadmium compounds, silicon tetrachloride, hexafluoroethane and lead such as Cadmium Telluride, Copper Indium Selenide, Cadmium Indium Gallium (Di)selenide, Silicon Tetrachloride, etc.? I bet the Chinese folks that manufacture those cells have some pretty sick looking organs as well.

Photo Electric only takes advantage of a limited amount of the energy of the sun.

Largescale photo-electric solar is wasteful in the end except in prime locations such as orbit above the major atmosphere; or remote locations.

Solar really shines in the latter as you don't need to run an electric grid to power generation centers with transmission losses.

Solar input is also effected by weather and positioning.

It is viable based on the situation, but should not be regulated as a replacement for mainstream solutions. It is an alternative for a reason.

Similar stipulations apply to wind.

I'm also curious of wind harvesting and climate, wind is moving differences of pressure and temperature in the atmosphere. What happens when on a large scale you slow down the surface layer? I've never taken the time to see what studies there are. Perhaps someone here knows.

Latest gen nuclear for population centers, alternative energy for the remote locations. This is closer to what we should be moving to. Alternative everywhere is going to be bad.

And when it comes to batteries, solar, electric cars, etc, many do not factor in the environmental costs of creating those items and infrastructure. Hydrocarbon burning may be the cleaner solution in the majority of cases over solar/electric.

I feel the need to add that my post is dealing directly with photovoltaic solar. There are other forms of solar harvesting that are "less high tech", but far more effective.

[Jims5543]

We be overflowing....

https://pilotonline.com/news/government/nation/article_b47a4ead-d1f4-541b-9167-c80121d65c04.html

MCALLEN, Texas — The Border Patrol released 250 migrants here on Tuesday and Wednesday and expects to free hundreds more in coming days because there is no room to hold them.

Normally, the agency would transfer the migrants to Immigration and Customs Enforcement to be “processed” and in many cases placed in detention facilities. But officials said Wednesday that a recent influx of Central American families has led to a severe shortage of space.

Immigrant advocates suggested the releases were intended to sow confusion at the border and further President Donald Trump’s argument that there is a national emergency there.

“They are doing this deliberately so they can release a ton of people at once and create chaos,” said Efren Olivares, an attorney with the Texas Civil Rights Project, which sent lawyers to the McAllen bus station to monitor developments. “The government is trying to do this.”

He pointed out that the federal government has dealt with bigger influxes of migrants in the recent past.

A Border Patrol official — who spoke on the condition that he not be identified — denied that the release was a political stunt and said crowded facilities threatened agents and migrants.

“It is a crisis,” he said. “It’s not a self-proclaimed crisis.”

The agency plans to make similar releases along other parts of the border, he said.

In February, the Border Patrol caught 66,450 migrants, a 38 percent increase from January and one of the highest monthly totals of the last decade. More than half of those arrested were parents and children, and 40 percent of those were in the Rio Grande Valley.

The number of families arriving in the Rio Grande Valley sector since October has jumped nearly 210 percent over the same period in the last fiscal year, according to Customs and Border Protection reports.

Still, migrant apprehensions are far below levels seen for decades until the mid-2000s, when they reached more than a million per year — mostly adult Mexican men — before falling dramatically.

That hasn’t stopped Trump from declaring a national emergency at the southern border in order to tap into billions in federal funding for his long-promised border wall.

Three ICE family detention centers in Texas and Pennsylvania — with more than 3,000 beds — have been full for a month, said an agency official speaking on background.

“It reached a breaking point,” the official said.

Last week, ICE unions sent a scathing letter to Trump calling for Border Patrol to release migrants directly to clear space.

This week, the Border Patrol began doing just that, with 50 migrants released Tuesday and another 200 released on Wednesday, according to Carlos Diaz, a spokesman for the agency.

All were given notices to appear in court and turned over to Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, which operates a local respite center.

Sister Norma Pimentel, who runs the shelter, said 600 migrants arrived Wednesday, joining 900 who were already there. Three additional sites were opened to handle overflow.

Pimentel said the Border Patrol officials had given her warning of the release, saying their central processing center had filled with 5,000 migrants, some of whom they planned to start dropping at the downtown bus station. She and McAllen Mayor Jim Darling said they persuaded them to bus migrants to the shelters instead.

“I don’t understand why they let the numbers go up so high,” Pimentel said.

The main shelter’s halls were standing room only. Migrants who had not bathed in days clutched manila envelopes of immigration court paperwork. Volunteers helped them arrange bus tickets to join family or friends across the U.S., then took them to the station.

Some migrants said they and their children had been detained by the Border Patrol in crowded, chilly cells they called hieleras, or iceboxes. Others said they were held for nearly a week behind chain-link fences in the processing center, which they referred to as la perrera, or the kennel.

They slept on pallets that lined the concrete floor. Border Patrol provided medical care, but many of the children developed coughs, colds and fevers, migrants said.

“It’s uncomfortable,” said Kerlin Lopez, 21, who was released with his 3-year-old, fever-stricken daughter Tuesday after four days in the icebox and planned to join family in Los Angeles. “They don’t have enough space.”

Jose Soriano, a 29-year-old farmworker from Honduras who was with his 3-year-old son, said the crowding grew worse during the three days they were held.

“That’s why they sent us out so quick: No space,” he said agents told him.

On Wednesday, he and his son made their way from the shelter to the bus station. They were headed to Atlanta to stay with a friend. They are scheduled to appear in immigration court there on March 27.

Volunteers in the area are already accustomed to helping large numbers of newly released migrants. Elizabeth Cavazos, a leader of the migrant advocacy group Angry Tias & Abuelas of RGV, said ICE typically releases 300 to 500 migrants a day in McAllen.

But additional releases in large numbers by the Border Patrol are likely to strain the system, she said.

“I feel like they’re trying to put some stress on the volunteer and advocacy groups, all of us touting ‘There’s no crisis down here,’” Cavazos said. “Maybe it’s for them to save face because they’ve been calling this a border crisis and everything’s peachy keen down here. That’s what it feels like.”

[Racerbvd]

Originally Posted by Jims5543

We be overflowing....

https://pilotonline.com/news/government/nation/article_b47a4ead-d1f4-541b-9167-c80121d65c04.html

Put them in shipping containers and truck their asses out of the USA.

[Superman]

Two days and five pages. There is hope.

[fastfredracing]

I wonder why we are not patrolling the border with drones.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Beat me to it Fred, was going to post yesterday. Why don't we have literally a few thousand drones flying up and down the border relaying info to mobile border control units.

And why aren't we fining businesses 2X annual salary for every illegal alien they hire and sentencing business owners to jail time.

[billybek]

Maybe this is about a different type of drone.
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/politics/surveillance-drones-along-u-s-canadian-border-not-helping-security-says-audit

[ficke]

There is not enough facilities to deal with the quantity of people crossing. The border agents know where they cross and the volume and let them in many places.
Having drones to confirm what they already know is a waste of limited resources.

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by Shaun @ Tru6

Beat me to it Fred, was going to post yesterday. Why don't we have literally a few thousand drones flying up and down the border relaying info to mobile border control units.

And why aren't we fining businesses 2X annual salary for every illegal alien they hire and sentencing business owners to jail time.

The drone part is being worked on, and there are already a lot of units flying, including stationary Aerostats,

We are teamed with Version (which has an presence in this area) since they have the comms infrastructure and systems integration capability and we have the "better mousetrap" tethered UAS.

Concerning your second point, I agree wholeheartedly: Washington State has done a great job (perhaps better) in punishing growers that use guest workers. It works.

I spent a lot of time with the large growers (think 26 thousand acre ranches) and labor, which used to be taken for granted, is now a major concern.

[kach22i]

FYI,
PARF thread from 2016 on an adjacent concept related to this thread.

Architecture firm proposes a ‘Border City’ between the United States and Mexico
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-politics-religion/932983-architecture-firm-proposes-border-city-between-united-states-mexico.html


To me the concept of this thread's premise is we cannot afford the cost and complexity of a fence/wall costing $X dollars a foot, so let's build one costing $1000X a foot.

Certainly sounds like most government projects.

[fintstone]

Originally Posted by fastfredracing

I wonder why we are not patrolling the border with drones.

We are...but all that does is give us grainy photos/videos of thousands pouring in...unless you want to start weaponizing them (Predator).

Once on U.S soil, it is too late. Even worse if they make it to a population enter. A wall would stop most...and slow down the rest.

[scottmandue]

Originally Posted by fastfredracing

I wonder why we are not patrolling the border with drones.

I said that and have been ignored.

Why not embrace technology? Work smarter not harder.

But no this is Merica and brute force is always the answer.

[996AE]

Originally Posted by scottmandue

I said that and have been ignored.

Why not embrace technology? Work smarter not harder.

But no this is Merica and brute force is always the answer.

Not difficult

The issue is not identifying where they are crossing. The difficulting is our laws. Once entered with family in tow they are now on the taxpayer payroll for life. We cant send them back. Healthcare, food, shelter, education all paid for by US taxpayers. Many will be on the take for life.

Walls keep them on the other side.

Drones dont!

[Tervuren]

Originally Posted by scottmandue

I said that and have been ignored.

Why not embrace technology? Work smarter not harder.

But no this is Merica and brute force is always the answer.

Are you suggesting we go Obama on border crossers?

High Explosive or Incendiary rounds from the drones?

A drone army would work, but we don't get to ask questions to let in those we might actually want.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by 996AE

Not difficult

The issue is not identifying where they are crossing. The difficulting is our laws. Once entered with family in tow they are now on the taxpayer payroll for life. We cant send them back. Healthcare, food, shelter, education all paid for by US taxpayers. Many will be on the take for life.

Walls keep them on the other side.

Drones dont!

Absolute nonsense.

Not one bit true.

[fastfredracing]

I am sure we could figure out a way to have drones hold off crossers. Fly at them, play nickleback at loud volumes, drop smoke bombs , etc....

[javadog]

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

Absolute nonsense.

Not one bit true.

I'd bet that there are 20 or 30 million examples running around this country that would prove your assertion to be way off.

[kach22i]

November 13, 2018
Video: Military’s ‘Active Denial System’ Can Hit Illegals at 700 Yards, Instantly Turn Them Back
https://www.westernjournal.com/ct/video-militarys-active-denial-system-can-hit-illegals-700-yards-instantly-turn-back/

About seven football fields in range......................put two every 1,400 yards apart in towers, can even be automated or remote controlled.

I wonder if used on feral pigs if the smell of cooking pork would attract unwanted guests.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by javadog

I'd bet that there are 20 or 30 million examples running around this country that would prove your assertion to be way off.

Considering the population is ~1/2 to ~1/3 your assumption of the number of "examples" you'd loose.

https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/18_1214_PLCY_pops-est-report.pdf

Or do you buy that garbage that they, the undocumented / unauthorized, are eligible for public assistance?

https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL33809.pdf