SUMMARYThe United States has spent billions over 25 years building surveillance towers along its southern border to detect people crossing illegally. An investigation found hundreds of people passed through areas monitored by these towers without being stopped and later died there, including in zones covered by newer AI-powered systems. The findings point to repeated failures of border surveillance technology and a humanitarian crisis in the borderlands.
The US has spent billions building a “virtual wall” of surveillance towers along its southern border over the past 25 years, promising they will help detect and apprehend border crossers and save lives. But a groundbreaking investigation by MIT Technology Review has documented over a thousand people who moved through areas watched by these towers without being reached or apprehended, and who ultimately died there. Some were even under the watch of newly installed AI-powered towers designed to spot people automatically.
Our findings reveal a humanitarian crisis more visible than previously known, and repeated failures of the virtual wall’s basic security promise. Join MIT Technology Review editors and reporters for a conversation examining the failures of border surveillance technology and uncovering the stories of the people who die in the borderlands.
Speakers: Mat Honan, editor in chief, James O’Donnell, senior AI reporter, and Eileen Guo, senior features and investigations reporter
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