Now that the partial government shutdown is over, at least for now, I want to talk about an alternative to Trump’s wall.

I agree that our southern border needs a better way to prevent people and drugs from illegally crossing into the United States. But I also recognize that the border up north with Canada also needs to be beefed up. Just because people think that all the illegal activity occurs down south, that does not make it necessarily true.

Too many think that our northern border is secure and it is not! So I will address an alternative method that also would work up north too.

One of the simplest ideas that I have is to use a long duration drone with both thermal imaging and a low light high resolution camera. There are already military drones that could accomplish this mission, but I thought that I would also show you some examples of civilian ones that would work well too.

The first is from a company named Vanilla Unmanned, their latest drone is “capable for flying continuously for up to 10 days, providing persistent surveillance and reconnaissance.” They made a diesel powered drone called VA001 that flew “for a flight lasting five days, one hour, and 24 minutes. The most amazing part of it? That even after carrying out its record-breaking flight, when it touched back down on solid ground at the end, it had three days’ worth of fuel remaining on board.”

Another is from Airbus and is called the Zephyr S, “Zephyr’s persistent flight is unrivaled. Unlike other unmanned aircraft, it uses solar energy, with secondary batteries charged in daylight powering overnight flight for months at a time. The first unmanned aircraft of its kind to fly the stratosphere, Zephyr is capable of revolutionizing defense, humanitarian, and environmental missions all over the world.” This drone is solar powered and has the capability to stay aloft for weeks on end.

Both of the examples are winged type drones and not what most people think of, the four or more engined one. You know the one people buy to fly for themselves. The problem with this type of drone is the flight time is not very long and thus they would not lend themselves to patrolling the border.

The above is just a small sampling of what is available. My point is that a physical barrier is not the only effective way to stop the movement of people in the United States. And yes I know that the ‘Wall’ also has electronic devices to detect movement, etc.

I just think that maybe it is time to stop thinking of a physical barrier and the high costs associated with them. Of course we could always make a barrier consisting of barbed-wire, like you see in the old world war movies. Somehow I don’t think that would be too popular and it seems even meaner than any of the wall designs that Trump has looked at, but it would be cheaper and faster to build .

That is my opinion- Jumpin Jersey Mike