A new report claims that U.S. Customs and Border Protection wants to use artificial intelligence to conduct surveillance on American cities and “track suspicious activity.” The report comes as President Donald Trump’s administration is cracking down on illegal immigration across the United States.
According to The Intercept, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection presentation obtained by the outlet reveals multiple technology items that the agency wants to purchase, such as better radio communications systems, satellite technology to aid surveillance towers along the U.S. southern border, and artificial intelligence technology to conduct increased surveillance.
The Intercept reported that Border Patrol’s Law Enforcement Operations Division’s wishlist included “advanced AI to identify and track suspicious activity in urban environment.” The outlet noted that while Border Patrol did not elaborate on “suspicious activity,” the agency suggested that advanced artificial intelligence would address “challenges” presented by “dense residential areas.”
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According to The Intercept, the wishlist request from Border Patrol’s Law Enforcement Operations Division was listed in the presentation under the agency’s coastal area of responsibility, which spans from Florida to Kentucky. Additionally, The Intercept reported that the agency’s southern area of responsibility, which spans from Nevada to Oklahoma, is requesting “advanced intelligence to identify suspicious patterns” and “long-range surveillance” due to city environments that “make it difficult to separate normal activity from suspicious activity.”
While the Fourth Amendment guarantees protections against “unreasonable searches and seizures” by law enforcement officials, The Intercept reported that federal immigration officials are allowed to execute searches and detain individuals without a warrant within 100 miles of the southern border, the northern border, and the U.S. coastline. The outlet noted that many of the country’s largest cities, such as New York City and Los Angeles, are included in the border zones.
In addition to Customs and Border Protection’s wishlist request for artificial intelligence-powered surveillance of American cities, News Nation recently shared a video on X, formerly Twitter, of new surveillance towers in the Del Rio Sector that can monitor the border and alert agents when the cameras detect individuals along the border.
