Jan Brewer Says Send in the Drones to Hunt Immigrants

Forget "Send in the Clowns." There's a new show tune playing through the halls of the Arizona governor's office, and it's called, "Send in the Drones."

That's because Gov. Jan Brewer, who recently signed into law one of the harshest anti-immigrant pieces of legislation in U.S. history, has fired off a letter to President Barack Obama, urging him to send dozens of drones down to the U.S./Mexico border, to target people who might consider crossing.

Drones are the same weapons that the Obama administration has used in record amounts in Afghanistan and Pakistan, to the tune of numerous civilian casualties and untold amounts of anger from not only terrorist networks like al Qaeda, but also regular people on the ground who don't like watching their houses destroyed and their loved ones blown up.

Perhaps Gov. Brewer isn't aware of the fact that drones, otherwise known as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have a dubious reputation for killing innocent people.

"I would also ask you, as overseas operations in Iraq and Afghanistan permit, to consider wider deployment of UAVs [Unmanned Aerial Vehicles] along our nation's southern border," Gov. Brewer wrote. "I am aware of how effective these assets have become in Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom, and it seems UAVs operations would be ideal for border security and counter-drug missions."

What a strange definition of "effective" Gov. Brewer has, and rather amazing that she'd openly advocate for turning the U.S./Mexico border into a spin-off of the Afghan/Pakistan border.

Of course, what's also somewhat bizarre about Gov. Brewer's request for drones to patrol the border is the fact that ... drones already patrol the border. That's a fact not lost on Mother Jones, who notes that at least five drones already roam along the border, and have been since the mid-2000s, well before the Obama administration took office.

"If you want to get on the government's case for not flying Predators in domestic airspace or for considering the idea in the first place, too late — that drone has flown," writes Dave Gilson at Mother Jones.

So it looks like Gov. Brewer's vision for Arizona is a desert land filled with rogue law enforcement officers, National Guard helicopters, drones, and military weapons. Correct me if I'm wrong, but is this a state in the U.S., or the scenery being mapped out for the next version of Grand Theft Auto?

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