Bush pledges unmanned drones to police US border

EL PASO, TEXAS - President George W. Bush has promised the use of unmanned flying drones to help patrol the porous US-Mexican border as Democrats charged he had not done enough to provide border security.

Wrapping up a two-day swing to promote his plans to overhaul US immigration laws, Bush visited an area of the American bank of the Rio Grande to view security measures.

On one side he could see over the dry riverbed to Ciudad Juarez and on the other El Paso's skyline.

His motorcade travelled along an electrified chain link fence with tactical lighting and topped with barbed-wire skirts.

The 428km of border in the El Paso sector is patrolled by 1300 armed Border Patrol guards in green uniforms in vehicles or on horseback.

"We're going to use drones to be able to help enforce the border in rural Texas and in rural New Mexico and rural Arizona," he said.

"See, it's one thing to add agents, but if you look at the size of this border, you can't add enough agents."

The United States military has used drones to track down suspects in the war on terrorism, he added.

In Washington, David Obey, the ranking Democrat on the House of Representatives Appropriations Committee, said Bush has been reluctant to improve border security.

"We have had to drag this Administration kicking and screaming to get additional funding for border security. If he is finally serious about securing our borders I say 'Welcome sir, it's taken you long enough'," said Obey.

Bush said technology as well as fencing was key to curbing illegal immigration.

"What you've got to do is get technology in the hands of the agents so they can better do their job," he said.

Each year, more than one million undocumented migrants try to slip across the rivers and deserts on the 3200km US-Mexico border in search of work in the United States.

The problem reached such proportions in the summer that Arizona and New Mexico declared states of emergency, saying tens of thousands of illegal immigrants were endangering border security.

"It's dangerous here," Bush said. "There's no other way to look at it and that's why folks need more resources and more agents to help them, and that's what we're providing."

Agents in the sector have caught 122,600 illegal migrants this year, up from 104,000 in 2004.

Fuelled by fears of terrorists slipping into the country, escalating violence and drug smuggling, polls show that Americans have become increasingly worried about illegal immigration.

Bush has strongly rejected granting amnesty to illegal immigrants and called for a hardened Mexico border.

- REUTERS