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from the what-happens-underground-stays-underground dept.
girlwhowaspluggedout writes:
"The US Border Patrol has a new tool in its battle against the tunnels that are used to smuggle in drugs from Mexico. Since the cartels' diggers operate outside the range of the agency's cameras, motions detectors, and drones, and because filling the tunnels with concrete hasn't stopped the smugglers, the US Border Patrol now regularly employs robots to search through the underground drug trafficking routes.
The Border Patrol operates four remote-controlled robots along the US-Mexico border. Three of the four are assigned to its station in Nogales, Arizona, the final destination for most of the tunnels that have been discovered so far near the southern border. The agency's robots, which include Applied Research Associates' Pointman Tactical Robot and Inuktun Services' Versatrax 300, can easily fit in closed quarters. The tunnel that the Border Patrol shut down last month, for example though it was equipped with electric lighting, ventilation fans, and wood shoring was only 3 feet and high 2 feet wide. It spanned a whopping 481 feet, the largest tunnel discovered in Nogales by the Border Patrol.
The robots' ability to travel through areas where the air is unsafe to breath for extended periods is especially valuable in Nogales, AZ, whose popularity with drug smugglers is due to its sewer system, which is easily accessible from the adjacent city of Heroica Nogales, Mexico."
(Score: 1) by etherscythe on Thursday February 27 2014, @04:15PM
The federal Disproportionate Share Hospital [wikipedia.org] program is what I'm talking about.
Yes, the hospital eats some of it, too. And our costs go up at every step, because complexity breeds waste. I also agree that we should not let people just die on the streets; that's unsanitary and asking for plagues to break out, not to mention the ethical problems.
Either way, the citizens already in-country are being burdened with the services to those who are not productive members of society.
(Score: 1) by adolf on Thursday February 27 2014, @07:13PM
Which, I think, is exactly how it should be.
I'm wasting my days as I've wasted my nights and I've wasted my youth
(Score: 1) by etherscythe on Thursday February 27 2014, @08:13PM
I agree there should be a safety net. I think we also agree that simply enforcing existing laws with sensible policies is mostly the best way to go as far as correcting the undocumented worker problem.
However, my original point was, not everybody is inclined to pull their weight and, not to be heartless or anything, but I don't know that we need to let in just *anybody*. I'd rather an immigrant show they have some kind of responsibility or useful skill. I might give an immediate pass to a college degree, for example, particularly to someone on a student visa graduating from a US institution. Successful history of paying taxes on a work visa would be another consideration.
Long story short, let's not allow ourselves to collapse under the overburden of an unsustainable immigration policy - it might be to everyone's benefit to instead provide through our foreign aid programs to developing countries, particularly given that much of the tax burden falls on the middle-to-low class workers anyway.
(Score: 1) by adolf on Thursday February 27 2014, @08:43PM
But if we only let smart and talented people in, then all we really do is decrease the wages of the smart and talented people who are already citizens. We've already got enough people with college degrees working as highly-educated, under-employed line cooks.
It takes all kinds of people to have a healthy and functional society -- Rome needs ditch diggers, too. And I don't think ditch that digging should be a job solely reserved for native-born Americans.
That all said, I'm not exactly suggesting that the gates be thrown wide open for anyone who can muster their way across the river. There are some people (convicted violent criminals, for instance) who we might be better off without, but even they ought to have an opportunity to demonstrate that they've grown beyond that phase in their life and are now good-natured, productive people.
And I think that enough English to be conversational and read/write directions should be implicit, as well as a demonstration basic understanding of our legal system and general expectations and civic responsibilities, so they've got a fair shot at being useful people in the US.
I'm wasting my days as I've wasted my nights and I've wasted my youth
(Score: 1) by etherscythe on Thursday February 27 2014, @08:58PM
I specifically mentioned the work visa for this reason; I don't really care what kind of work, just demonstrate somehow that you can be responsible on some level. So, in short, I think we are in complete agreement.
(Score: 1) by adolf on Thursday February 27 2014, @10:53PM
Only if we grant work visas for ditch diggers.
I'm wasting my days as I've wasted my nights and I've wasted my youth