The Cochise County Sheriff’s Office says it plans to implement a drone pilot program to enhance U.S.-Mexico border surveillance and operations this fall.
In a statement, the Sheriff's Office says it looks to align with President Donald Trump's executive order, which calls for the acceleration of “the safe commercialization of drone technologies.”
The Office has partnered with Draganfly Inc., a Canadian manufacturer whose drones have been used in de-mining efforts and humanitarian aid in Ukraine.
The pilot program in Cochise County will use drones, AI and other tech like thermal imaging for round-the-clock border surveillance. Drones could be in the air by September.
The southeastern Arizona county skims more than 80 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border.
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The flow of migrants to the U.S.-Mexico border has remained low over the past year, but there was an uptick in apprehensions between February and March. -
County officials discussed the opportunity of connecting Tucson to the Mexican passenger rail network at a Pima Association of Governments meeting in January. The meeting included participation from the Mexican railroad agency and consulate. -
The Biden-era CBP One program allowed asylum seekers to apply for a fixed number of appointments with immigration officers at a handful of border ports of entry — including the Nogales crossing. -
Family members of migrants and forensic investigators who study migrant deaths are reeling in the wake of a puzzling outage at the Colibri Center for Human Rights. -
It's the final ruling in a case that began last year, when the Trump administration announced plans to build a 30-foot steel bollard wall along some 27-miles of San Rafael Valley and waived a host of laws to speed-up construction.
