'Disturbing' new tactics: Mexican cartels use ultralight aircraft to smuggle illegals into U.S

That’s going to cause a lot of issues with legal civilian aircraft operating along our side of the border not to mention getting a whole lot of farmers and ranchers to rioting because it would ground their crop dusters and private helo’s used for game and livestock herding and counts.

Don’t matter long as we get us sum Mexcans! Yee haw!

We could switch out the barrels, but where is the fun in that?

I hadn’t thought of crop dusters and such being that close to the border. I always thought of the border as being fairly desolate until further in.

“What can we say? Gotta give them credit for ingenuity.”

Next time I see any “enlightened” commentary about non white or mixed race individuals having lower IQ’s, I’ll direct them to this thread.

We’re dealing with ‘em on the ground. They’re getting around that with light aircraft.

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2 cross the border on an ultra lite and thousands ross the border as it’s wide open.

Ingenuity or stupid???

Nope, the Rio Grande Valley is one of the most fertile and productive agricultural regions in the world.

Now from El Paso to Yuma there’s a whole lot of really desolate desert type country but along the Rio Grande itself there’s a tremendous amount of cropland on both sides of the border as well as it being great for fruit and nut growing.

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As more, better, and taller fencing is put in place it’s going to take more and more ingenuity to get across successfully.

In the aftermath of 9/11 the military was authorized to shoot down civilian aircraft deemed a threat. They will shoot down anything from a Cessna 150 to a 747 if it poses a threat.

But you are right about ultralight aircraft carrying a couple of illegals. It would be virtually impossible to deem them a threat requiring deadly force to stop.

Only under direct orders of the President or Secretary of defense and only after they have been positively identified as a threat.

The point is, the fighters are deployed upon report of a errant or highjacked aircraft and the President can legally pull the trigger if the threat appears serious.

Yep and that’s about the only circumstance where the military can shoot down a civilian aircraft over the US.

When aiding the CG offshore they have a different set of rules and a much freer hand.

…they just need to be found in possession of Anthrax after the fact.

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We’d have a lot more to fear from terrorists getting a hold of crop dusters to spread biologicals. They wouldn’t even raise an eyebrow.

UL’s would be extremely ineffective for such attacks and until there is such an attack from the southern border, or overwhelming evidence one was in progress there’s no possible way it would be legal to start shooting them down.