# @bsarhq on Instagram

- **Type:** Video
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DYlM7BOu2EY
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/65816766-bsarhq-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/3da5c734af.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-05-21T01:04:50.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Battalion SAR (Non-Emergency), Humanitarian NGO (@bsarhq) — https://gondola.cc/bsarhq

## Caption

🚨 ANOTHER CBP SURVEILLANCE BLIMP DOWN 🚨

A U.S. military-owned surveillance aerostat being operated near Laredo, Texas broke free during storms and crashed in Mexico this week according to CNN.

These blimps are constantly sold to the public as “life-saving” border technology. In reality, they are part of the expanding border military industrial complex — a surveillance infrastructure designed to push vulnerable people farther into remote desert terrain where rescue becomes less likely and death becomes more common.

Meanwhile, humanitarian volunteers searching for the missing and recovering the dead are expected to operate on donations, old vehicles, and unpaid labor.

There always seems to be funding for:
• surveillance towers
• tactical aerostats
• drones
• military contractors
• border walls
• remote detection systems

But almost nothing for humanitarian search and rescue.

The aerostat program itself has been controversial for years. CBP and the Department of Defense have repeatedly expanded, scaled back, defunded, and revived these systems. Some are radar-based TARS systems originally tied to military operations, while others are smaller mobile tactical aerostats equipped with cameras and surveillance equipment.

According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s guide Surveillance Technologies at the U.S.–Mexico Border, CBP acquired additional military aerostats in 2022 with plans at one point to expand the fleet to more than 20 systems across the borderlands.

Communities in several border regions have pushed back against these blimps and successfully demanded their removal.

We hope this one doesn’t return.

The footage in this video is from the aerostat near Santa Teresa, New Mexico taking a nosedive last year. It is NOT footage of the blimp that broke away near Laredo this week.

Recommended reading:
Electronic Frontier Foundation — “Surveillance Technologies at the U.S.–Mexico Border”

#Borderlands
#CBP
#BorderPatrol
#Surveillance
#HumanRights

## Stats

- **Views:** 16,484
- **Likes:** 550
- **Shares:** 0
- **Comments:** 31

## Tags

humanrights, borderlands, surveillance, cbp, borderpatrol

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