US to use radar to monitor border

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Sen. Charles Schumer says Homeland Security will begin tapping into Canadian military radar later this year to detect low-flying aircraft used to smuggle drugs from Canada into the United States.
 
The New York Democrat chaired a hearing of the subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees and Border Security in Washington Tuesday. Afterward, he told reporters that the Department of Homeland Security will begin integrating the Canadian radar feeds by November.

The technology was used with success in Washington state from 2005 to 2008. Several senators from northern border states, including Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont.,  wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano in February asking for the technology to be used in other sectors to combat drug-smuggling.

Schumer also says a border security task force of several U.S. and Canadian agencies will be established in Massena by October.

“Our law enforcement officers and border agents will have an effective new tool to keep a better eye on the border, and to get in front of illegal crossings,” said Tester in a statement released Tuesday.  “This is a smart, cost-effective and common sense way to keep making our communities safer—both from illegal drug threats, and terrorist threats.”