ABC News & Univision
By: Jill Replogle

Unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, could soon be patrolling the United States border with Mexico 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That’s what the major immigration reform bill introduced last week by a bipartisan group of senators proposes.

The goal: “effective control” of the border. Under the bill, no immigrant granted provisional legal status would be eligible to apply for a Green Card until the Department of Homeland Security shows it’s made substantial progress toward that goal. Border hawks want the pathway to citizenship more firmly tied to border security success.

Ten Predator B drones already patrol the nation’s borders. Some worry authorities will use drones to spy on Americans without due process.

San Diego-based General Atomics provides Predator drones to the DHS and the U.S. military.

Several weeks ago, the anti-war group Code Pink protested in front of the home of General Atomics CEO Neal Blue. They launched a baby drone that was soon confiscated by a police officer.

“It’s my drone and I want to know why I can’t fly it over Neal Blue’s house,” Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin said to the officer.

Up until now, 36-foot-long Predator drones have been used on the southern border to patrol remote areas of Texas and Arizona.

They’ve also been lent out to other federal agencies like FEMA, which used the drones to survey flood damage.

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