Ft. Huachuca, Arizona – When MQ-9 predatory drones flew over the anti-glossy demonstrations in Los Angeles this summer, it was the first time that they were sent to monitor demonstrations on American soil since 2020, and their use has reflected a change in the way the government chooses to deploy the plane once reserved for border and war areas.
Previous information said drones sent by the Ministry of Internal Security had led surveillance on June 7 weekend from thousands of demonstrators demonstrated against raids led by immigration and customs application. The predators flew over Los Angeles for at least four more days, according to follow -up experts who identified thefts through the communications of the air traffic tower and the images of a flight predator.
These amateur detectives, which monitor flying traffic and identified the first flight, which was confirmed by customs and border protection, shared their conclusions on social networks.
Defenders of the use of drones to monitor demonstrations indicate that the plane, with their high -tech capacities, can provide the authorities with useful and detailed information in real time. Human rights defenders fear that the new policy will not focus on civil rights.
Drones, which fly to around 20,000 feet to surveillance, can pass a live video diet to various government agencies – ice, army and more. The MQ designation refers to the capacities and the function of the drone. In military language, M means multi-use and Q indicates that it is an unmanned air vehicle.
Asked about the additional flights of the flights over Los Angeles, Homeland Security did not answer the questions directly, but said that the flights were intended to protect the police and the military.
“The Air and Marine Operations of CBP (AMO) provided both inhabited and unmanned air support to the law enforcement partners leading operations in the Grand Los Angeles region,” the ministry said in a statement.
“The two platforms offer an unequaled capacity with electro-optical / infrared sensors and downward liaison capacities that provide awareness of the situation and support for communications that improve the safety of agents,” added the press release.
The demonstrators walk against the repression of immigration to Los Angeles on June 10, the same day that the Ministry of Internal Security on X published a video of demonstrations taken by a drone.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
Homeland Security presented information obtained through drones in an article on X, formerly Twitter on June 10. The message included images of fire vehicles and demonstrators who clashed with the staff of the police, apparently to show why it was necessary that the Trump administration will deploy the National Guard to Los Angeles.
“Look: Dhs Drone Fetom of La Rioters,” said the post. “It is not calm. It is not peaceful. California politicians must cancel their crowd of riots. ”
The position was dated June 10, but it was not clear if the video came from a Predator drone.
Supporters of civil freedoms ask why this equipment, which has been used to deposit bombs guided by laser on targets in countries like Afghanistan, is used for domestic problems.
The deployment of predators on the demonstrators is a significant gap in the American government’s policy not to pilot drones on demonstrations, in order to avoid the perception that they hope for the activity of the rights of the 1st amendment, said US officials.
The last time Homeland Security sent a predator to fly over demonstrators, according to representatives of the United States government, was in Minneapolis during the 2020 demonstrations against the murder of George Floyd by a police officer found guilty of his murder.
Five Democrats from the Chamber’s Supervisory Committee qualified the deployment of “gross violence as authority” and asked internal security to explain what had happened.
Sometimes drones are requested by law enforcement or other authorities to fly over a region, for example, to help monitor forest fires or to provide superb monitoring, officials said.
Predators are equipped with advanced infrared heat sensors and high -definition video cameras, and can follow the scores of individuals within a radius of 15 nautical miles.
In a file photo, an unmanned predator drone is guided from a flight operations center in FT. Huachuca in Arizona in 2013.
(John Moore / Getty Images)
The drone uses an artificial intelligence program, called vehicle and disassembly, operating radar, or vader, to detect small objects – a human being, a rabbit, even a flight bird. Infrared sensors can identify thermal signatures even inside certain buildings.
In response to drone flights above Los Angeles, representative Jimmy Gomez (D-Los Angeles) presented a bill in July which would limit predatory drones and other unmanned planes to be deployed by the American government against demonstrators.
“My bill to prohibit drones of military surveillance in our cities puts Trump and his administration in check,” said Gomez. “It is not only about Los Angeles, it affects the whole country. I refuse to allow Trump to use these weapons of war, capable of carrying bombs, as tools for the application of laws against civilians.”
On September 16, the Los Angeles municipal council unanimously approved a resolution approving the law on military drones of the prohibition of Gomez.
“Los Angeles will not remain pending while the federal government is transforming the weapons of war against our residents,” said Council member Euniss Hernandez, who presented the resolution. “Spying on people engaged in peaceful demonstrations is unconstitutional, dangerous and a direct attack on democracy.”
Drones were first brought to the South American border in 2005 and modernized for surveillance operations. Homeland Security has deployed drones to browse the length of the 2,000 -thousand American border, looking for drug traffickers and undocumented migrants.
Only an hour south of Tucson is Ft. Huachuca, one of the four Drone bases MQ-9 from which drones are deployed along the southern border and inside the United States
As with the MQ-9, military quality technology often finds its way inside the country, according to experts.
“It is tested in war areas, the border, tested in cities along the border and tested inside the country,” said Dave Maass, director of investigations at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an organization for the defense of privacy rights. “This tends to be the trajectory we see.”
With a drop in migrant crossings in the United States, experts predict that drones will be deployed more often on demonstrations in the years to come.
“If someone in the Trump administration decides that it is necessary to use drones inside American citizens, resources will not be a problem,” said Adam Isaacson, which covers national security of the Washington Office of Latin America, a human rights research group. “Because there is simply not much to watch at the border.”
Fisher is a special correspondent. This story was co-published with Collaborative pure newsA non-profit bilingual editorial room dedicated to new quality news and information from the American-Mexican border.
