Increased aerial surveillance, border fencing and patrols have all met with fierce opposition from Mexican officials, who have threatened legal and diplomatic consequences at each turn, particularly in regards to fencing and patrols.
And civilian spin-offs include cheaper aerial photography, airborne border patrols and safety inspections of high-rise buildings.
"The provocative aerial bombardments near the border increase the potential of direct confrontation between Sudan and South Sudan," the American statement said.
Last month, Turkey's military downed an unmanned aerial vehicle near the border with Syria that military analysts said appeared to be Russian-made.
A typical aerial image of the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic shows the eastern side lush green with vegetation and forests, whereas the western side—Haiti— is brown, barren, and devoid of trees.
In Upper Nile, southern rebels have attacked the army and now the charity Oxfam has pulled its staff out of the state because it said they were too near aerial bombardments over the border and a reported troop build-up.
An individual or drone takes an aerial photograph on the border, prints that image with the holographic printer, and can use it to better understand the landscape and to deploy missions.
This includes the €20m Talos project, which will develop and field test "a mobile, modular, scalable, autonomous and adaptive system for protecting European borders" using "aerial and ground unmanned vehicles, supervised by a command and control centre".
Mr. Obama, to his credit, made the citizenship path a central part of his plan and did not make it contingent on adding still more troops, border fencing and aerial drones.
Northrop Grumman, meanwhile, is pitching to Homeland Security officials an automated tracking device — first built for the Pentagon to find roadside bombs in Afghanistan — that could be mounted on aerial drones to find illegal border crossers.
