Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen will fly to North Dakota near the U.S.-Canada border on Thursday to learn about the threat drones pose to border security, and in particular, how drones are used to smuggle drugs across the border.
Nielsen will visit Grand Forks, a small city located 75 miles south of Manitoba, to observe U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s own unmanned aerial systems. She will stop by the AMO’s National Air Security Operations Center in Grand Forks with Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D.
“During the trip, Secretary Nielsen will address the Department’s concerns regarding the threats from small unmanned aerial systems and reiterate that the Department is actively seeking new legal authority from Congress to protect and defend Americans against these types of airborne threats,” DHS said in a statement.
The North Dakota base trains officers flying and spotting drones, as well as manned aircraft. Nielsen will be briefed by DHS personnel on how to increase the department’s use of drones and technology to secure the border.
Drones have increasingly been used by transnational criminal organizations to smuggle drugs into the U.S.
As of the end of March, the halfway point into fiscal year 2018, CBP’s Air and Marine Operations Center reported 36 drone-related incidents. That number is nearly double the total 19 incidents documented in all of FY 2017.
[Also read: Trump picks Ronald Vitiello, lifelong Border Patrol agent, to head ICE]
