Let's hunt some immigrants!
New website allows you to patrol Texas' borders from your computer
Reducing controversial issues to tacky pop-culture allusions is hilarious.
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Hey pardner, how many times have you said to yourself, "Man, I wish I could do more to protect the sanctity of Texas' borders against illegal immigrants, but dang if I'm not plum tuckered after a long day of ropin' and wrasslin'. If only there were a way to do it without leaving my couch, so I didn't even have to pull on my boots to kick a little trespasser ass"? Well, have a big, steaming bowl of vigilante justice: As part of a controversial new program aimed at increasing border security, the Texas Border Sheriff's Coalition has set up a series of surveillance cameras along the Rio Grande and wired them to the Internet, enabling thousands of folks just like you to become "virtual Texas deputies" and spot drug smugglers and other uninvited guests before they can sneak their way into the promised land.
Visitors to blueservo.net will find several areas known for illegal crossing, marked with notes like, "If you see four or five young men in a boat, report this activity." Should they spot anything suspicious, a simple click allows them to send a message to the nearest sheriff's office. According to an NPR report, more than 40,000 people across the world, some as far away as Australia, have been logging such reports on the site since last November, and have thus far lent a helping hand to four major marijuana busts and 30 illegal immigration incidents. Most of these web-based Border Patrol agents view it as a hobby: South Texas truck driver Robert Fahrenkamp told NPR that after completing a shift, he enjoys nothing more than popping open a Red Bull, putting on some Black Sabbath or Steppenwolf (though we've always found that Ted Nugent makes the best soundtrack for safeguarding the purity of America), and staring for hours at night-vision shots of grassy meadows in the hopes of spotting some backpack-toting Mexican trying to escape the poverty of his homeland. ("This gives me a little edge feeling," Fahrenkamp says.)
Of course, there are also naysayers like State Sen. Elliot Shapleigh (D-El Paso), who believes it "invites extremists to participate in virtual immigrant hunts," and others have pointed out the Orwellian aspects of turning the world at large into a sort of all-seeing watchdog, something that could have potentially frightening ramifications for everyone, not just those engaged in criminal activity. There's also the fact that some view these kinds of "catch the immigrant" games--like the one staged a couple of years ago by NYU's College Republicans--will help to bring an already percolating racism against Hispanics to a frothy, Lou Dobbsian boil.
But hey, we just report the news. We now open the comments to impassioned debate, accusations of liberal bias, cut-and-paste statistics, and plugs for your own anti-immigration websites. And if you do decide to join in the fun, here's a little mood music.
