Old-Fashioned Blimp to Keep a Watchful Eye on Migrant Border Crossings in New Mexico

PERRY CHIARAMONTE
Saturday, September 7, 2024
04:30:00 am

A tried-and-true dirigible is being used in the region to stop an already high number of deaths this year.



Customs and Border Protection will launch a Goodyear-style blimp to provide surveillance from up to 15,000 feet in the sky for a bird’s eye view of a stretch of the southern border known as a high-traffic smuggling corridor.

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“El Paso Sector is deploying an aerostat just west of the Port of Santa Teresa, New Mexico, in September 2024 to monitor the area of the U.S.-Mexico border in that zone,” the CBP told Border Report. “This area also has a significant number of human smuggling related deaths and rescues as the area’s harsh desert conditions and remote terrain present a dangerous risk to migrants who are often abandoned in the area by criminal smugglers.”

The aerostat is being used to quell the large amount of migrant deaths that have occurred in the region this past spring and summer. Border agents, along with local first responders and police officers, have found the bodies of 168 migrants across the desert after they got lost or were simply abandoned by smugglers.

The TARS system uses an unmanned helium-filled dirigible, outfitted with high-powered cameras, that hang in the air while tethered to a stationary position on the ground to provide a wide field of view that is unable to be seen on the ground.

More:
https://www.removepaywall.com/search?url=https://www.nysun.com/article/old-fashioned-blimp-to-keep-a-watchful-eye-on-migrant-border-crossings-in-new-mexico

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Memory Lane article:

The Trump Baby blimp is headed to the Museum of London
It’s found a home in the protest collection

Written by
Time Out contributors
Tuesday 19 January 2021



Back in 2018, a group of ‘art activists’ headed to City Hall with a request. With a visit from then-US President Donald Trump imminent, they wanted permission to fly a giant balloon – designed to look like a naked Donald Trump in a nappy – in the sky above Westminster. A crowdfunder was launched to raise money for the vast amounts of helium needed to keep the six-metre artwork in the air.

At first, Sadiq Khan's team said no. Then – after a petition to ‘Let Trump Baby Fly’ gained more than 10,000 signatures – the Trump Baby-makers got their way, and the orange inflatable flew proud over anti-Trump marches in the city. And that was just the start. Over the years that followed, the overinflated gasbag sailed over France, Argentina, Ireland, Denmark and various locations in the US. Now, it’s finally taking its place in history.

With Joe Biden’s inauguration due in mere days, the blimp is landing in its final home: the Museum of London. The artwork will sit in the protest collection, alongside objects relating to the Suffrage movement and and tents that belonged to Brian Haw who used to actively protest outside the Houses of Parliament.

Sharon Ament, Museum of London Director, says the museum decided to acquire it to mark ‘the wave of feeling that washed over the city that day and capture a particular moment of resistance – a feeling still relevant today as we live through these exceptionally challenging times - that ultimately shows Londoners banding together in the face of extreme adversity’. For her it was a demonstration of an open, challenging, ever-evolving spirit that’s been in London throughout history.

More:
https://www.timeout.com/london/news/the-trump-baby-blimp-is-headed-to-the-museum-of-london-011921