Texas Congressmen: Secure Our Borders with EMP Devices

No, this isn’t a special border patrol spinoff of 24. This is real life.

Republican Michael McCaul and Democrat Henry Cuellar, two Texas Congressman, want to put suitcase-contained EMP devices on our borders. EMPs, or electromagnetic pulse devices, send out an electric field that can disable any gadgetry it comes in contact with. As the only potential for human injury is that resulting from the electronic failures, this seems like a safe method for border patrol implementation.

At first, this seemed an odd choice. In imagining the nature of illegally crossing the border, the scenario rarely includes any high-tech methods, or even any electronics at all. But these EMPs would be more for anti-smuggling purposes, the congressmen said according to The Hill. While an EMP just would not work against a family trying to cross the border on foot (unless it just intimidates them by virtue of being a high tech weapon) it will stop any car illegally crossing the border, which could help curb drug and human smuggling endeavors.

As for these uses, sure, why not? Minimal human injury while still catching the bad guys seems like a perfect world. It’s not often that giving yet more weapons to border patrol comes off as a good idea, but this seems to be just that. Unless we discover that all smugglers have pacemakers, which seems unlikely, this is a worthy endeavor.

Next on the list: A sonic fence to keep out those pesky Mexican smoke monsters.

(Via The Hill via PopSci, image via PopSci)