Defense contractors drooling at the possibilities offered by the immigration reform plan

It looks like our friendly neighborhood military industrial complex may be on board with the immigration reform plan trying to make its way through congress. They see the possibility to make big bucks securing the border with their high tech gadgets if this thing pulls through. With Iraq and Afghanistan winding down, the border may be the next big profitable frontier for the military industrial complex.

Defense Contractors Turn to Border Control for New Profits

Millions of immigrants aren’t the only ones hoping for Congress to approve an immigration reform plan. Military contractors, too, are looking forward to the opportunities that the new law might bring.

While the reform plan currently in the U.S. Senate would provide new chances at citizenship for immigrants, it also would require the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to do something that’s never been done before—secure every inch of the nearly 2,000-mile border between the U.S. and Mexico and stanch the flow of illegal immigrants once and for all.

Since the federal government can’t afford to add thousands of border agents to accomplish such a goal, DHS will turn instead to technology to halt unauthorized crossings.

That’s where companies like Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics and others come in.

If the legislation as currently drafted becomes law, DHS will have only six months to offer up ways to achieve “effective control” and “persistent surveillance” of the entire 1,969-mile border with Mexico.

Allgov

I wonder if the big money spent by the defense contractors will be what it takes to get this legislation rammed through? They seem to get their way with pretty much everything else this country does, why should it be any different with immigration reform?

I don't have a problem with securing the border when there are numerous examples like this:

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 3,500 acres in southern Arizona have now been closed to U.S. citizens because of the dangers posed in that area from Mexican drug smugglers. The area includes part of the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge.

www.examiner.com...

Spend a few billion on 'hi tech' solutions or spend billions more on entitlement programs for illegals.

Well this is not good on so many levels. Once the MIC starts leaning on Congress a lot of the Republicans will fold.

Then we get the next step which smells like more "drones" more cameras. Wonder if the are going to be armed and if this whole thing was part of the 30,000 drones we've been told to expect in our skies.

Originally posted by Bassago
Well this is not good on so many levels. Once the MIC starts leaning on Congress a lot of the Republicans will fold.

Then we get the next step which smells like more "drones" more cameras. Wonder if the are going to be armed and if this whole thing was part of the 30,000 drones we've been told to expect in our skies.

The welfare industrial complex is larger than the mic and more powerful, and costs this nation more than most can comprehend.

I thought the guys that sit in the room ABOVE defence wanted a "NAU" union of Mexico, Canada and US. Has that been tabled?

www.thedailybell.com...What about NAU?

reply to post by neo96

Agreed but one beast at a time. The MIC needs to just slow down. They could have been used before now to help with border control and I think they are to some degree. Using the Immigration bill as the excuse is lame. Our borders should be secure anyway.

reply to post by neo96


Hey, I'm all for securing the border but there are a lot of troubling provisions in this bill that might make it not worth the cost. It will pretty much assure a huge block of voters sure to go Democrat in the future and from some accounts gives the former "illegals" immediate access to welfare and Obamacare.

If those provisions stay in place, not only will we have the MIC fighting for this but also the Welfare Industrial Complex you complain about will be pushing for it as well. With those two groups on its side there may be no way of stopping this thing, no matter how many bad things they slip into it.

reply to post by FortAnthem


The money is going to be spent either way more so if nothing is done, but that really is the question,.

IMO they don't want the border secured I mean if government really ever fixed a problem hell would freeze over.

Originally posted by FortAnthem
reply to post by neo96

 

Hey, I'm all for securing the border but there are a lot of troubling provisions in this bill that might make it not worth the cost. It will pretty much assure a huge block of voters sure to go Democrat in the future and from some accounts gives the former "illegals" immediate access to welfare and Obamacare.

If those provisions stay in place, not only will we have the MIC fighting for this but also the Welfare Industrial Complex you complain about will be pushing for it as well. With those two groups on its side there may be no way of stopping this thing, no matter how many bad things they slip into it.

Absolutely correct, glad you pointed out the "voting" issue. Also the stealth DHS biometric database for everyone is very disturbing.

reply to post by Bassago


I'm sure if we tried to list all the bad stuff in this bill, we'd run out of space on the ATS hard drives.

It sounds like another of those Pelosi-type bills where we have to pass it to find out what's in it. The border closing provisions are just a carrot to get Republicans to play along. I remember a few years ago they passed a bill to put up a fence along the whole border. Its about ten years later and they still haven't made any serious progress on that one.

What makes anyone think they'll take the border security provisions of this bill any more seriously?

reply to post by FortAnthem
Since they are already using drones and high tech surveillance gear on American soil the least they can do is use some of it where it can do some good for a change. One of my cousin's boys is a border patrol guard and she fears for his life on a daily basis, so if using such technology at the border will make his job safer I am all for it.

reply to post by littled16


The thing I worry about with this is that they will find some way to weasel out of the border protection provisions. The way they're selling it, the amnesty only kicks in if they meet the border security goals but, I wouldn't put it passed them to find some way out of that. Maybe they'll have Obama or some department head simply declare the border "secured" despite all the evidence to the contrary.

Obama unilaterally ended funding for the border wall in 2010, I doubt he will honor any real border security measures.

reply to post by FortAnthem
I agree that they will probably weasel out of most of the border security provisions, but anything they add to current security can only help. They're bound and determined to keep all the illegals currently in the country here no matter what (when is the last time you heard of any mass deportations?) and are already preventing current laws against illegal immigrants from being enforced. The border will never be completely secure, but the least the Fed can do is give our border patrol personnel as many tools as possible to help keep them as safe as possible, even if they don't provide all that is promised- which is sadly pretty much a "given".

They were supposed to have the border secured before the last amnesty and we all see how that went.

They are relentless and will do everything in their power to pass this amnesty. They want to reward law breakers while we have people coming through the proper channels still waiting to come here. What a slap in the face!