U.S. Tests Surveillance Balloons Along the Mexican Border

They're not so festive

Floating 2,500-feet above scrub-covered U.S. ranchland near the Mexico border, the payload of high-tech cameras onboard a balloon being used by the Border Patrol can easily see a cluster of reporters and the make, model and color of their vehicles a couple of miles away.

In Iraq or Afghanistan, where the technology has already proven effective at spotting attackers, such balloons provide surveillance around bases. U.S. officials think they could be equally helpful in tracking drug smugglers and illegal immigrants along a rugged stretch of the Rio Grande that doesn't have any segments of border fence.