Smart Wall's AI Towers Watch Over a Million Border Residents

More than a million people in the United States and Mexico live in areas along the border where AI-powered surveillance towers can see them, according to a New York Times investigation by Bora Erden and Nicholas Nehamas. The cameras can watch people leaving their homes, children on playgrounds, and even inside a bedroom window.

At least 350 AI-powered towers are already standing from California to Texas, and the Trump administration has secured more than $1 billion to build 1,500 more. Another four million people live within view of an older generation of cameras the government plans to retrofit with AI. The system classifies what it sees as a person, a vehicle, or an animal and immediately alerts Border Patrol agents.

"It can see when I leave, who I'm with, who's coming and going from our house. It follows you," one resident told the Times.

Customs and Border Protection says the technology is "essential to border security" and that it respects privacy and civil liberties. People cannot opt out. The buildout is advancing while border crossings sit at historic lows.