Agents will use remote cameras to verify status.
The next generation of border security will be unveiled in southwest Texas this month -- an unmanned kiosk using cameras and other sensors to check documents.
The Customs and Border Patrol's new Class B port of entry in Big Bend National Park is a kiosk where agents will remotely check the status of travelers coming and going.
The National Border Patrol Council's Shawn Moran calls it a gaping hole in security.
“You still need people there to make an arrest,” Moran tells KTRH News. “Technology will never be the end all, be all.”
Curtis Collier at U.S. Border Watch agrees, adding similar checkpoints along the Canadian border already have proved to be pointless.
“What we see is they go into a little booth and check in, and the whole time we're watching them check in there are cars passing by behind them not checking in at all,” says Collier. “This is a totally different thing, totally different kind of people and threat coming across.”
Moran says that's his group's biggest concern.
“There has to be some kind of consequence or repercussion if you try to evade or avoid this checkpoint altogether,” he says.
The government argues 700 agents will be close by if needed.
