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U.S. - MEXICO BORDER ENFORCEMENT GOES HIGH-TECH
U.S. Customs officials in San Ysidro, California have a new weapon in their fight to keep people from illegally crossing the border. It is a high-tech camera that reads the license plate numbers of each passing car and sends them to a computer that determines if the car is stolen or somehow related to a crime, and how often the car crosses the border.
The camera is part of a nationwide effort to stem the flow of guns and money from the sale of drugs into Mexico. Last year, $ 1.2 million was discovered in one vehicle headed to Mexico, and other stops involved tens of thousands of dollars. 
There are also new and faster commuter lanes. For a one-time fee of $ 129, the applicant, after fingerprinting and checking for a criminal record, is given a pass resembling a credit card to swipe at a border checkpoint.
The Texas border also has new equipment. The thirty year-old helicopters that have been patrolling the border are being replaced with nine new state-of-the-art helicopters. The new helicopters can be almost overheard before they are detected, and will be equipped with infrared cameras to locate people in the dark.
Not everyone is pleased with the technological improvements at the border. The environmentalist organization Defenders of Wildlife has sued the U.S. Border Patrol in order to discover the extent of the impact of their low-flying helicopters and other monitoring techniques on the local wildlife, in particular the Sonoran pronghorn antelope. There are currently only 120 of these animals remaining in the U.S.