The Department of Homeland Security is taking a careful approach, wary of costly mistakes in past government attempts to set up electronic border surveillance.
Backers hope they will prove a cheaper alternative to helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft for tasks as varied as power and pipeline inspection, mapping, security, border surveillance, research, filming, fire fighting, search and rescue and delivering supplies.
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The Customs and Border Patrol already conducts unarmed surveillance drone flights on the southern border, the northern border and over the Caribbean.
Mr Larsen said he and Lebanese army officers had checked the border during a helicopter surveillance tour.
According to the person familiar with the proposals, the new border security requirements call for 100 percent surveillance and a 90 percent apprehension rate of border crossers or would-be crossers in sectors where the majority of unauthorized entries take place.
The U.S. military is offering the surveillance drones to border officials free of charge, said Mr. Borkowski.
Without formally pledging to defend Albania's soil, the alliance could help Albania's own border-monitoring efforts through aerial surveillance.
Mr Bamba said any adjustments to the size of the force would need to be offset "by the deployment of qualitative resources, such as surveillance drones for the border zone between Ivory Coast and Liberia".
The legislation would require constant surveillance of high-risk border areas and require that border officers turn back at least 90% of those who attempt illegal crossings each year.
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There are also two military investigations, one by the Marine Corps and the other by Joint Task Force 6, the agency which oversees military drugs-surveillance operations along the Texas border.
Money would be used to fortify border fences, boost patrols, and acquire surveillance technology from the Department of Defense -- including drones and drone pilots.
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They praised the pending legislation for directing more resources to the agency for surveillance equipment and for authorizing 3, 500 new Border Patrol officers.
In between the two main fences is 150 feet of "no man's land, " an area that the Border Patrol sweeps with flood lights and trucks, and soon, surveillance cameras.
The attorney general also cited the U.S. border with Canada as a "transit point" for suspected terrorists and said the administration will increase its surveillance there.
The Border Patrol would remain responsible for catching and detaining illegal immigrants, with National Guard troops providing intelligence gathering, surveillance and other administrative support.
The latest tunnel was discovered after US agents patrolling near the border crossing in the Otay Mesa area of San Diego pulled over a tractor trailer that had left a warehouse under surveillance.
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