A wall, historically, is a thing that stands in one place and does nothing. The new one has been upgraded to watch you eat dinner.
The Towers
According to a New York Times investigation by Bora Erden and Nicholas Nehamas, U.S. Customs and Border Protection operates at least 350 AI-powered surveillance towers along the U.S.-Mexico border. The Times identified 209 of them and found that at least 180,000 people in the United States and 850,000 in Mexico live within view. That is a little over a million people, which is a respectable audience for a program nobody asked them to subscribe to.
The cameras are paired with software that detects and tracks people automatically. Per the Times, the towers can see people leaving their homes, children on playgrounds, and, in at least one reconstruction, a bedroom window. The Algorithm does not blink, does not take lunch, and does not wonder whether it should be looking.
The Neighbors
Eloisa Cavazos, who lives near a tower in Mission, Texas, put it plainly: "It can see when I leave, who I'm with, who's coming and going from our house. It follows you." Even now, dear reader, that is a more precise product description than anything in the procurement paperwork.
The Times noted that residents cannot opt out. They are, one presumes, welcome to move out of the field of view, a plan that works until the field of view moves in.
The Defense
Anduril, which builds most of the towers, disputed the analysis, saying customers can block designated areas from monitoring. CBP says the technology is essential to border security and respects privacy. Assistant Commissioner Hilton Beckham told CBS 8 the towers help prevent "homicides, DUI crashes, sexual assaults and drug deaths."
And yet — as if this were not enough — the Times reports that the agency can remove those blackout restrictions at any time and can share footage with foreign governments. A privacy setting that its owner can switch off whenever the owner likes is less a protection than a mood.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation's Dave Maass called the program a "costly boondoggle," and told CBS 8 the data is "kept and fed into private companies for analyzed data and trained algorithms." CBP, for its part, says future spending depends on "systems testing outcomes, vendor performance and leadership approval."
The Expansion
The administration has reportedly secured more than $1 billion to build 1,500 new towers. This is a bold answer to the question of whether 350 was enough, asked by no one who lives under them.
The coverage reviewed here carries no word on whether the cameras can see anything that would require a warrant, so that question remains, one gathers, in a drawer with the blackout settings.
The Smart Wall is, for the record, working exactly as designed. It watches. What it watches is the part still under review.
Sources: Raw Story — Trump's surveillance towers can see into neighborhoods and are 'always watching' · CBS 8 via Yahoo News — AI surveillance towers at US-Mexico border spark privacy concerns · The New York Times — Trump's 'Smart Wall' of A.I. Cameras Is Watching the Border, and More Than a Million People
