Report Finds Drones at Border Ineffective

A costly drone program along the Southwest border may not be paying off, a new report from the Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General said.

The program spans eight years and has cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, yet the report found it has yet to prove its value. Inspector General John Roth concluded that with these findings, the $443 million funding the program would be best moved elsewhere.

"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," Roth said.

In the report, the OIG found that the average hourly cost of operating a drone was $12,255, a significant jump from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Air and Marine’s original estimated cost of $2,468 per hour.

Total flight time of the drones fell short of the OAM’s 16 hours per day goal every single day of the Fiscal Year 2013 the report analyzed. In fact, due to weather, the drones were only airborne for 22 percent of the goal hours, the report found.

The report also found that the costly program was credited with helping in less than two percent of CBP apprehensions of people illegally crossing the border.

The program was originally thought to run throughout the entire Southwest border on a nearly 2,000 mile stretch from Texas to California, the CBP said. The IG report said actual deployment of drones was limited to a 100-mile stretch in Arizona and a 70-mile segment in Texas, a much shorter area than originally thought.
 

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