MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

US Border Patrol drone. (US Customs and Border Protection)

As BuzzFlash at Truthout has documented many a time, the US war on immigration from Mexico and Central America is cruel, political, fueled by fear of "the other" and inhumane.

BuzzFlash has also provided evidence of how the drumbeat of xenophobia against immigration by Latin Americans of limited means has resulted in large allocations of tax-payer dollars being shifted to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for "securing the Mexican border." Exactly what the hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars spent annually are "protecting" the US from is not clear, but the allocations continue to accelerate for keeping people - who are trying literally to survive - from entering the nation by crossing the Mexican border.

With all the corporate and Wall Street strident denunciation of big government, there is nothing that they love more than billions and billions of dollars in federal defense and "homeland security" spending. The military-industrial-surveillance complex excels at finding a funding spigot and turning it into a torrent.

Incendiary language designed to create apprehension and panic further constructs the context for increased spending on the military and - in this case – halting the migration of non-whites in need. The gusher of money that results from such pandering is not often effectively spent. Even if the goals are reprehensible, the flood of money often doesn't achieve those unworthy objectives. In short, the policies - in this case denying compassionate shelter to refugees from a situation that the US has largely helped to create south of the Mexican border - are not only bad; vast amounts of taxpayer dollars are spent on enriching corporations and contractors for equipment and strategies that don't even achieve their blameworthy intended purposes.

Such is the case with US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) drones - as revealed in a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) analysis. According to a pro-border patrol industry website, Homeland Security Today,

After Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has spent "hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars" over 8 years on its drone initiative, it "has yet to prove the value of its Unmanned Aircraft System program while drastically understating the costs." Nor can CBP "demonstrate how much the program has improved border security."

That's the conclusion of a new audit report by the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Inspector General (IG).

The IG audit report, Customs and Border Protection's Unmanned Aircraft System Program Does Not Achieve Intended Results or Recognize All Costs of Operations, is the IG's second audit of the program since 2012, and "found the effort by CBP's Office of Air and Marine (OAM) still has no reliable method of measuring its performance and that its impact in stemming illegal immigration has been minimal."

The report concludes that "CBP has invested significant funds in a program that has not achieved the expected results, and it cannot demonstrate how much the program has improved border security. The $443 million CBP plans to spend on program expansion could be put to better use by investing in alternatives."

To cut to the chase, an analysis by the mega-department responsible for US border drones has concluded that they are basically a colossally expensive failure at achieving their dubious mission.

"Notwithstanding the significant investment, we see no evidence that the drones contribute to a more secure border, and there is no reason to invest additional taxpayer funds at this time," Inspector General John Roth said in Homeland Security Today.

All in all, it is probably a good thing that the grossly expensive border drone program does not work, because if it did, the drones would only add more misery to migrants seeking refuge. On the other hand, the Border Patrol drone fleet - which shows no signs of being grounded or curtailed despite the analysis of its own parent department - is one small indicator of how the military-industrial-surveillance complex is thriving off of fear and failure.

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