Speaker 1: These towers. They're like high tech scarecrows out in the desert.
Speaker 1: They're mounted at around one hundred feet tall because the
Speaker 1: whole purpose of the towers is get up and above
Speaker 1: the landscape, so you can see a wide area and
Speaker 1: if you can see the towers right, they can see you.
Speaker 2: Fran Fuduro Media and PRX. It's Latino USA. I'm Marienno Rossac.
Speaker 2: Today a story about how new bordered technology is impacting
Speaker 2: communities in the United States. We go to Arizona, where
Speaker 2: private companies built some of the first surveillance towers on
Speaker 2: the US Mexico border, and we're going to take a
Speaker 2: look at what these towers mean today for our country,
Speaker 2: for the future of the people who are crossing, and
Speaker 2: for the future of the people who live on the border.
Speaker 2: So with me in the studio is Latino USA Produce
Speaker 2: Serving Andolano's Junior.
Speaker 3: Hey, Ray, Hey Maria.
Speaker 2: So Ray, you have been busy over the last several months.
Speaker 2: You've been researching surveillance technology, specifically technology that's being used
Speaker 2: on the US Mexico border. So tell me what has
Speaker 2: been your focus.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, let me start off by saying that you
Speaker 3: know both you and I have reported on the border
Speaker 3: for years now, and I grew up in the Roal
Speaker 3: Grande Valley of South Texas and I was an immigration
Speaker 3: reported there for a while.
Speaker 2: Right, And you did a lot of strong reporting along
Speaker 2: the border. In fact, you were covering the last two
Speaker 2: years of the Trump administration, specifically policies like the Remain
Speaker 2: in Mexico program and the expulsions because of Title forty two.
Speaker 3: Yes, I reported on those policies. And for this story,
Speaker 3: I decided to look at border technology and how it's
Speaker 3: impacting migration. And I specifically wanted to dig deep and
Speaker 3: better understand the the border surveillance towers that are there
Speaker 3: and these integrated fixed towers.
Speaker 2: So that's a very high tech term, integrated fixed towers,
Speaker 2: because you know, when I think of border technology, I
Speaker 2: think of like drones, biometrics, you know, license plate readers,
Speaker 2: ground sensors, cameras everywhere. But you're talking now about then
Speaker 2: extra layer of surveillance, right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's exactly right. And you know, these types of
Speaker 3: towers are just like one of several types of towers
Speaker 3: and everything that you just mentioned, Maria, as you know,
Speaker 3: is part of this bigger thing known as the virtual wall.
Speaker 3: It's also labeled as the cyber wall, and the US
Speaker 3: is pouring more and more money into this type of technology.
Speaker 3: As of early November, Maria, it's estimated that there are
Speaker 3: about five hundred surveillance towers across the entire US Mexico border.
Speaker 2: Right and from where we are now, ray the politics
Speaker 2: of today is actually at both Republicans and Democrats support
Speaker 2: the expansion of this virtual wall, this cyber wall.
Speaker 3: That's exactly right, and that's one of the reasons why
Speaker 3: I wanted to look at this issue. Now. You know, Madia,
Speaker 3: we know that a physical wall is controversial across political aisles,
Speaker 3: but both Democrats and Republicans seem to be in favor
Speaker 3: of border technology. And Madia, I think it's also important
Speaker 3: to say that, you know President Electrump's website. On it,
Speaker 3: there's a link to the gopiece platform, and it says
Speaker 3: that they are in favor of using quote advanced technology
Speaker 3: to monitor and secure the border. But you know, activists
Speaker 3: and researchers argue that a virtual law is just as
Speaker 3: problematic and oftentimes as dangerous and deadly as a physical law.
Speaker 3: And I think that's why it's important for us to
Speaker 3: look at this. So throughout this story, we'll hear snapshots
Speaker 3: from across southern Arizona, and we're focusing on this region
Speaker 3: specific because that's where one of the first major concentrations
Speaker 3: of surveillance towers on the US Mexico border happened.
Speaker 2: You know, it turns out that this is a place
Speaker 2: where I've reported from several times on other border issues.
Speaker 2: It's also a place that Latino USA continues to go
Speaker 2: back to in our reporting exactly, Maria. Okay, Ray, So
Speaker 2: you're taking us to Tucson, Arizona. That's where you end
Speaker 2: up meeting with a group of people who tried to
Speaker 2: do something about these surveillance towers before they even went up.
Speaker 2: So take us there, take us to the story. Thanks Ray.
Speaker 3: The tuthon sun is shining down on me as I
Speaker 3: walk towards a large, rusted colored gate. As I slid
Speaker 3: it open, a little lizard scurries away into the cracks
Speaker 3: on the wall, and there's a car waiting for me.
Speaker 4: How you doing good?
Speaker 5: I finally meet you.
Speaker 3: That's Valentina Andrews. She goes by, Tina, I hop in
Speaker 3: her car and we instantly connect over our cats.
Speaker 5: So thunder Cat is a big, fluffy brown taba Cali.
Speaker 5: She is just a short hair all black.
Speaker 6: Cat oh Okay.
Speaker 3: Tina was raised on the Thano Atam Nation, which is
Speaker 3: about an hour and a half southwest of Tucson, where
Speaker 3: she was born. The reservation is federally recognized and her
Speaker 3: people are known for thriving in the harsh desert climate.
Speaker 3: The reservation is about two point eight million acres, or
Speaker 3: about the size of Connecticut. The nation is made up
Speaker 3: of eleven districts and there's about thirty four thousand yearrolled members.
Speaker 3: The Thano Autumn people were separated when the border was created.
Speaker 3: This ended up splitting the nation, with thno Autumn people
Speaker 3: now living on both sides. The nation has not wanted
Speaker 3: a border walk for many reasons, but one of the
Speaker 3: main ones is because they worried that a physical wall
Speaker 3: could further cut their tithes with athano Aatam people in Mexico.
Speaker 3: So we just entered the nation, and so.
Speaker 5: We're going to take a drive down south close to
Speaker 5: the border and check out one of those surveillance towers.
Speaker 3: Tina and I are heading to a small town on
Speaker 3: the nation named Cells. Our plan is to meet up
Speaker 3: with Tina's friend Joshua Garcia. He's also a tribal member
Speaker 3: who was raised on the reservation. He lives in the
Speaker 3: Chickakook District, which sits on the border where some surveillance
Speaker 3: towers were built. Last a year, okay, Tina and I
Speaker 3: hop into his truck and head south to the Chickakook
Speaker 3: District on the border to go see one of the
Speaker 3: surveillance towers on their land. Both Tina and josh were
Speaker 3: outspoken against the towers and they tried to raise awareness
Speaker 3: about them. Tina had a podcast and Josh would go
Speaker 3: around the community to talk about the surveillance towers. This
Speaker 3: was their way of resisting the towers. But despite THEIRS
Speaker 3: and many community members' criticisms, the towers were still built.
Speaker 3: So right now we're pulling up to one of the
Speaker 3: Albit towers and we're still on this dirt road. You know,
Speaker 3: it's kind of bumpy, it's very rocky, and to the
Speaker 3: side of us they're saguaros, And yeah, now we're kind
Speaker 3: of directly in front of this tower. In twenty fourteen,
Speaker 3: US Customs and Border Protection approved the building of surveillance
Speaker 3: towers across southern Arizona, including several on the thano Atam Nation.
Speaker 3: The multi million dollar contract was awarded to Elbit Systems
Speaker 3: of America. It's a US division of a company named
Speaker 3: Albert Systems, which is one of Israel's largest military companies.
Speaker 3: More than fifty integrated fixed towers from Albert would end
Speaker 3: up being built. This is a commercial that Albert ran
Speaker 3: on their YouTube page in twenty twenty one.
Speaker 4: From Combits to combat Vehicles, Elbit Systems technologies are operational
Speaker 4: in dozens of countries. Our solutions enable domination of the battle,
Speaker 4: to engage threats with power.
Speaker 3: And precision, and they're also a global leader when it
Speaker 3: comes to the surveillance industry. Albert has actually used similar
Speaker 3: surveillance towers on their border with Palestine. This connection between Albert,
Speaker 3: Israel and Palestine was a concern that many on the
Speaker 3: nation stressed. Some on the thano Atam Nation felt that
Speaker 3: having this same technology on their land felt like an occupation.
Speaker 7: Shoots tipman, take a look, Yeah that's ti. I just
Speaker 7: think somebody's watching this for sure.
Speaker 5: Wow, these panels are huge.
Speaker 3: The Elbeit tower is huge. It shoots more than one
Speaker 3: hundred and twenty feet into the sky. And it's about
Speaker 3: the size of a twelve story building. It looks like
Speaker 3: a metal communications tower or a cell phone tower. If
Speaker 3: you look closely, you can see a camera at the
Speaker 3: very top of it. These towers have the ability to
Speaker 3: see up to seven point five miles within its radius.
Speaker 3: That's about the length of more than one hundred and
Speaker 3: ten football fields. They can watch cars, people, animals, really
Speaker 3: anything within its range, and these towers are sometimes within
Speaker 3: close proximity of each other to make sure they capture
Speaker 3: everything within its line of sight. It's like surround you know,
Speaker 3: by a chain link fence with some barbed wires around
Speaker 3: it as well. And directly in front of it is
Speaker 3: a massive solar panel. It's about the size of two
Speaker 3: trucks to help power these towers. These surveillance towers are
Speaker 3: part of a broader network known as the Integrated Fixed
Speaker 3: Tower System. It's basically a bunch of towers on the
Speaker 3: border that monitor and talk to each other and let
Speaker 3: border agents know when they detect movement in the area.
Speaker 3: This network has been described by some experts as the
Speaker 3: spinal cord of the virtual wall. Both Tina and Josh
Speaker 3: stare at it. They have to tilt their heads back
Speaker 3: to see all of it. Standing in front of this tower,
Speaker 3: what goes on in your head just like looking at it.
Speaker 7: Seeing it, just know that somebody's there watching us, and
Speaker 7: at the same time, you know, hearing the birds out
Speaker 7: there singing, and how it's just such a desecration to
Speaker 7: the space. So to me, it just makes me really
Speaker 7: sad to see the signs here on our own supposedly
Speaker 7: sovereign land.
Speaker 3: Tina and Josh tried their best to fight against these towers,
Speaker 3: but ultimately they were constructed after leaders from the nation
Speaker 3: approved the towers on their land. It was reported that
Speaker 3: this happened in twenty nineteen. CBP secured enough money to
Speaker 3: allow for ten surveillance towers to be built on their lands.
Speaker 3: It was also reported at the time that tribal leadership
Speaker 3: thought that by permitting these towers being built, it could
Speaker 3: help eliminate the need for a physical law, but federal
Speaker 3: officials have said that the need for the wall has
Speaker 3: not been eliminated.
Speaker 7: Even though the community is on your side, but really
Speaker 7: it's those officials and our nation's governments that are the
Speaker 7: ones that are making these decisions. That's something that's the
Speaker 7: kind of hardest.
Speaker 3: Thing but it doesn't stop there. Elbett has already been
Speaker 3: awarded a contract to build more surveillance towers, possibly including
Speaker 3: these same types of integrated fixed towers along the border
Speaker 3: in the next few years.
Speaker 5: Looking back on it today and seeing where we're at
Speaker 5: and what it is and then actually standing next to one,
Speaker 5: you know, what we just did today was very very
Speaker 5: surreal and very like I'm just still like processing how
Speaker 5: tod theay Win.
Speaker 3: Tina says that when the towers were being built across
Speaker 3: southern Arizona, there's been a steady presence of Border patrol
Speaker 3: agents in their community through the years, and they work
Speaker 3: hand in hand with the surveillance towers. The towers notify
Speaker 3: agents when they detect movement, and that tells agents that
Speaker 3: they need to monitor the area. So it's not just
Speaker 3: the towers on the border that Tina has seen and
Speaker 3: had to deal with. It's also border militarization. In twenty twenty,
Speaker 3: shortly after some towers were built, a group of Indigenous
Speaker 3: led organizers gathered near a border patrol checkpoint in Pima County,
Speaker 3: where part of the thano Otam nation is located. It
Speaker 3: was on Indigenous People's Day and they were protesting proposed
Speaker 3: border wall construction. Some people were tear guested and even
Speaker 3: shot with rubber bullets by law enforcement officials that day.
Speaker 3: And last year, Autumn Nation member Raymond Mattia was killed
Speaker 3: in front of his home by Border patrol agents who
Speaker 3: were responding to a call that shots had been fired
Speaker 3: about a mile from the US Mexico border.
Speaker 8: New information out of Pima County tonight after member of
Speaker 8: the Telona Odam Nation was shot to death by Border patrol.
Speaker 9: The autopsy shows that Raymond Mattia were shot at least
Speaker 9: nine times.
Speaker 3: Raymond was reaching into his jacket to take out a
Speaker 3: cell phone, which law enforcement officials claimed they mistook for
Speaker 3: a gun. Three border patrol agents fired dozens of rounds
Speaker 3: at him. He was killed on the scene. Tina has
Speaker 3: also had her own run ins with border militarization. One
Speaker 3: moment really stands out to her. It was when border
Speaker 3: agents pulled her and her family over after the attendant
Speaker 3: and memorial service for her uncle.
Speaker 5: Everybody in the car was like in a panic, and
Speaker 5: I was like trying to calm the situation because they
Speaker 5: had their guns drawn on us, and also I had
Speaker 5: to show proof and let them know this is who
Speaker 5: we are, this is where we're coming from.
Speaker 3: Tina says she believes she was being racially profiled. She
Speaker 3: feels like she's part of the last generation on the
Speaker 3: nation to know what life was like before the intense
Speaker 3: and daily militarization and surveillance that goes hand in hand
Speaker 3: with the towers.
Speaker 5: When I think of my nieces and nephews, who are
Speaker 5: you know, babies and range from the ages of their
Speaker 5: early twenties, they know that that's what they grew up seeing,
Speaker 5: and that's normalized to them, but for us, still not
Speaker 5: normals for us, and we I don't think we'll ever
Speaker 5: accept that. It's sad to even think that this could
Speaker 5: be potentially a permanent thing for us here.
Speaker 3: Tina's fears about border patrol are informed by reality. In
Speaker 3: the last five years, at least two hundred and twenty
Speaker 3: two people were killed across the country during encounters with CBP.
Speaker 3: On top of that, DHS reported that there was an
Speaker 3: estimated four thousand border patrol agents nationwide in nineteen ninety two,
Speaker 3: and about thirty years later, in twenty twenty, there were
Speaker 3: almost twenty thousand agents. That's a growth of about five
Speaker 3: times within three decades. Arizona itself also experience an explosion
Speaker 3: of agents. In nineteen ninety two, there were only three
Speaker 3: hundred border agents, and by twenty twenty there were more
Speaker 3: than three thousand, six hundred. That's about twelve times more.
Speaker 5: You want to give border patrol officers the benefit of
Speaker 5: the doubt, but when majority of your experiences are not
Speaker 5: good and are negative when it comes to dealing with
Speaker 5: border issues, then of course, yeah, then that frustration starts
Speaker 5: to build.
Speaker 3: Tina says her people were sold the idea that these
Speaker 3: towers would protect them, but in reality, she says, they
Speaker 3: feel more surveilled and have ultimately experienced more violence on
Speaker 3: the border. As Tina, Josh and I walk back to
Speaker 3: the truck, I seen empty black water jug that migrants
Speaker 3: use to stay hydrated on their journey into the US.
Speaker 3: I also see other things like clothes, backpacks, and shoes
Speaker 3: lying in the dry desert landscape. You know, we're really
Speaker 3: close to your community, you know. As we drive, just
Speaker 3: I keep seeing those jugs the migrants carrying. What goes
Speaker 3: on for just you personally when you see stuff like that.
Speaker 7: Well, I just kind of always wonder where did they
Speaker 7: come from? What kind of circumstances led them to take
Speaker 7: this huge risk.
Speaker 3: This region has been a corridor for migration through the years,
Speaker 3: and it's been extremely deadly. For me, it's.
Speaker 7: Almost like a very surreal feeling because well, like it's
Speaker 7: all them people. There's a lot that goes with death,
Speaker 7: and so I always think, like, where are these people's
Speaker 7: spirits at. I hope they're found some kind of peace.
Speaker 3: This is something that people living on the border think
Speaker 3: about a lot. How many people have actually died in
Speaker 3: this region. Several humanitarian nonprofits say that it's a number
Speaker 3: that is under reported by the federal government. But one
Speaker 3: thing that we do know is that these surveillance towers
Speaker 3: don't just keep their eyes on the borderlands. They're actually
Speaker 3: contributing to something much darker.
Speaker 2: When we come back, dear listener, let you know, USA
Speaker 2: producer Renaldo Lanos Junior travels to another part of southern Arizona.
Speaker 2: He's going to help explain the funneling effect that these
Speaker 2: towers create by redirecting migrants to some of the most
Speaker 2: remote and deadly parts of the border. We're also going
Speaker 2: to hear about how some aid workers there are working
Speaker 2: to help prevent people from dying in the desert. Stay
Speaker 2: with us, Mayes, Hey, we're back. When we left off,
Speaker 2: we heard from Latino USA producer Renaldo Les Junior about
Speaker 2: how the Dano attum nation along southern Arizona was dealing
Speaker 2: with surveillance towers on the border. Renaldo is back in
Speaker 2: the studio with me. So, Ray, you're reporting about the
Speaker 2: concerns that the indigenous people had about these towers, but
Speaker 2: you also found out that there's a correlation between these
Speaker 2: surveillance towers and deaths in the desert.
Speaker 3: What is that. That's exactly right, Maria, and it's actually
Speaker 3: building off some of the reporting that you and other
Speaker 3: Latino USA colleague have done throughout the years, and most
Speaker 3: recently it was a story in twenty twenty two by
Speaker 3: Futuro Investigates. Well, you talked about the prevention through deterrence policy.
Speaker 3: Here's a clip of you from that piece.
Speaker 2: President Bill Clinton faced bipartisan pressure to quote do something
Speaker 2: about the border. He supported this policy of prevention through deterrence.
Speaker 2: This funneled people to the most geographically dangerous areas. So, Ray,
Speaker 2: what you're basically saying is that the towers, these surveillance
Speaker 2: towers are the newest addition in terms of technology to
Speaker 2: what has been going on since nineteen ninety four with
Speaker 2: this whole philosophy of prevention through deterrence, right, It's a
Speaker 2: policy designed to deter people from crossing the US Mexico
Speaker 2: border by not only strengthening border patrol presence, but also
Speaker 2: by setting up things like roadblocks and making it just
Speaker 2: much more are difficult to cross.
Speaker 3: Yes, and now migrants are trying to stay out of
Speaker 3: the line of sight of these towers in fear of apprehension,
Speaker 3: you know, and for that reason they get funnel to
Speaker 3: remote parts of the desert. And to find out more
Speaker 3: about how these towers are arguably contributing to the deaths
Speaker 3: of those crossing, I met up with some activists in
Speaker 3: the Sonoran Desert who are witnessing this firsthand and who
Speaker 3: are trying to prevent these deaths from happening in the
Speaker 3: first place.
Speaker 2: Okay, Ray, you're going to take on the story from here,
Speaker 2: thank you.
Speaker 3: I recently met up with a group of volunteers. They're
Speaker 3: known as the Tucson Samaritans, and if their name sounds familiar,
Speaker 3: it's because we've had them on our show earlier this
Speaker 3: year for a story about the border wall, its impacts
Speaker 3: on a nearby town, and what daily life is like
Speaker 3: by the southern Wall in Arizona. I'm with them today
Speaker 3: because one of the things they do is that they
Speaker 3: leave food and jugs of water for migrants who might
Speaker 3: be passing through. It's kind of similar to the one
Speaker 3: I saw with Josh and Tina on the thano Atam nation.
Speaker 3: The Samaritans travel to remote parts of the desert in
Speaker 3: hopes that this small gesture might help prevent dehydration, starvation,
Speaker 3: and even death.
Speaker 10: Hi.
Speaker 11: Good morning.
Speaker 3: Hi, Yes, I'm right.
Speaker 1: I'm nice to meet you.
Speaker 12: Michael him Michael, worry me you no pearly yet. It's
Speaker 12: seven o'clock.
Speaker 3: Brian and Michael are both volunteers with the Samaritans. Brian's
Speaker 3: been with them for several years now.
Speaker 12: I think we're not loading back here.
Speaker 3: Okay, it's seven in the morning, and it's kind of
Speaker 3: cool out right now, but I know that this is
Speaker 3: a place where temperatures can reach one hundred and eighteen
Speaker 3: degrees fahrenheit. Brian says that today they'll hit several water drops,
Speaker 3: and these spots are places he hasn't been to in
Speaker 3: a while. Hi, Michael, that's she's with the Colivity Center
Speaker 3: here in Tucson. The organization helps identify the bodies of
Speaker 3: migrants who have died in the region. It's also her
Speaker 3: first time being out with the Samaritans, but she's very
Speaker 3: familiar with their work. The four of us cram into
Speaker 3: a small suv and we head southwest for about an
Speaker 3: hour and a half. The view goes from a thriving,
Speaker 3: bustling city to a vast, dry desert landscape. After about
Speaker 3: forty five minutes, I lose cell phone service. On our way.
Speaker 3: We also drive by a surveillance tower standing in the
Speaker 3: middle of nowhere. It was a reminder that there's eyes
Speaker 3: here keeping watch. We finally get to our first destination.
Speaker 3: They'll be dropping off water and food for migrants. We
Speaker 3: all go to the back of the truck to gather
Speaker 3: the essentials.
Speaker 12: Food is probably the most important, because we've been fighting here,
Speaker 12: is that the food is gone.
Speaker 3: Every time.
Speaker 12: There's a bucket down there that we can seal.
Speaker 3: A five gallon buckett bet Loove, Brian and Michael take
Speaker 3: granola bars, vienna, sausages, and other snacks to leave out
Speaker 3: for the migrants. They also grab several one gallon jugs
Speaker 3: of water.
Speaker 12: All right, here we go.
Speaker 3: We hike for about half an hour. These water drops
Speaker 3: across the border have been reported on a lot, but
Speaker 3: it also shows that the work is never over, and
Speaker 3: as the planet gets warmer, they say it's more important
Speaker 3: than ever. When we finally get to our destination, we
Speaker 3: see that there's already food and water there.
Speaker 12: Every trip the last six months out here it's been empty,
Speaker 12: so we have to be out here regularly everywhere to
Speaker 12: see where we see signs of recent passage. We often
Speaker 12: try to put drops in an area like this, where
Speaker 12: it's in a canyon, there's only one place to walk,
Speaker 12: so if anybody's passing through here, unless they're on top
Speaker 12: of the ridges, they're going to find the supplies that we've.
Speaker 3: Left still, Brian leaves extra food and water just in case,
Speaker 3: because nearby we see signs that there's been movement here. Backpacks,
Speaker 3: clothes and other items are scattered on the ground.
Speaker 12: Cartels often have guides who can lead people north, although
Speaker 12: my understanding is that more and more it's being done
Speaker 12: remotely with cell phones and downloadable maps, so there could
Speaker 12: be groups out here who do not have a guide
Speaker 12: with them but simply get instructed in the morning. Here's
Speaker 12: where you need to get to by nighttime. Good luck.
Speaker 3: This work of dropping off supplies for migrants and hopes
Speaker 3: that they find it in these remote areas feels like
Speaker 3: looking for a needle in a haystack.
Speaker 12: And we have so far traced about fifteen hundred miles
Speaker 12: of paths that migrants walk on in a triangular area
Speaker 12: south of Tucson. That makes up about a thousand square miles,
Speaker 12: so fifty.
Speaker 3: After a while, we rest for a bit. Then Brian,
Speaker 3: Bedla and Mike pack up their stuff and we hike
Speaker 3: back to their car. We're going to another water drop,
Speaker 3: this time it's close to the border wall. Brian says,
Speaker 3: Migrant roots are always shifting, but the roots seem to
Speaker 3: be in very remote parts of the border, and that's intentional.
Speaker 3: Many people are trying to stay out of the line
Speaker 3: of sight of surveillance towers. Its groups like the Samaritans
Speaker 3: who are trying to save people. Research conducted by academics
Speaker 3: from the University of Arizona revealed that the surveillance towers
Speaker 3: here are directly linked to some of the deaths on
Speaker 3: this part of the border, and that's because of this
Speaker 3: funneling effect that the Samaritans and others have seen in
Speaker 3: the most remote parts of the desert. The researchers collected
Speaker 3: data like where migrants were crossing and where migrant bodies
Speaker 3: were being found before and after the towers came, and
Speaker 3: they concluded that migrants were dying further away from the
Speaker 3: towers since they were built in the hostile environment. I
Speaker 3: wanted to meet with one of the researchers, so I
Speaker 3: went to the University of Arizona and Tucson. I'm meeting
Speaker 3: with Jeff Boyce, who has spent a lot of time researching, studying,
Speaker 3: and publishing about this correlation between migrant deaths and surveillance
Speaker 3: towers in this Snorign desert. He's currently an assistant professor
Speaker 3: in the School of Geography in Dublin. This place means
Speaker 3: a lot to Jeff. It's where he spent a lot
Speaker 3: of sleepless nights working on his PhD.
Speaker 1: And it's really where I went on my intellectual journey
Speaker 1: becoming a researcher focused on the border, focused on border policing, technology, enforcement, infrastructure,
Speaker 1: and its impacts on human rights.
Speaker 3: Jeff tells me that before the Elba Towers came to
Speaker 3: the area. Yeah, there was the two thousand and five
Speaker 3: Secure Border Initiative Network or sbi NET for short. As
Speaker 3: part of this initiative, billions of dollars were given to
Speaker 3: private companies like Boeing to build surveillance towers and other
Speaker 3: technologies across the border, including in Arizona.
Speaker 1: You know, residents, I think, rightfully, you know, raised a
Speaker 1: lot of concern about privacy, right and there was this
Speaker 1: feeling that in fact, it wasn't so much like the
Speaker 1: desert or the border that was under surveillance.
Speaker 9: It was them.
Speaker 3: But sbi net ultimately failed. There were several technical issues
Speaker 3: and missed deadlines, and the technology itself wasn't living up
Speaker 3: to the promises of surveilling the border. The Obama administration
Speaker 3: canceled the program in twenty eleven. Then a few years later,
Speaker 3: Albert stepped up to the plate to build towers. This
Speaker 3: time the tech was better and ever evolving. Flash forward
Speaker 3: to today, Albitt and other companies are eating even more towers.
Speaker 3: Some of these towers now use artificial intelligence to better detect, track,
Speaker 3: and classify objects of interest. Experts like Jeff say that
Speaker 3: these towers are like high tech scarecrows out in the desert.
Speaker 1: They're mounted at around one hundred feet tall because the
Speaker 1: whole purpose of the towers is get up and above
Speaker 1: the landscape, so you can see a wide area. That
Speaker 1: makes them really visible, and if you're out in the
Speaker 1: desert during the daytime or at night, it's really clear
Speaker 1: where they are in the landscape.
Speaker 3: Migrants basically avoid being in the line of sight of
Speaker 3: these towers, but the towers can see in the dark
Speaker 3: because they have night vision cameras and sonar capabilities. When
Speaker 3: a tower detects movement, it lets border officials know that
Speaker 3: someone or something is within the range of the tower,
Speaker 3: so the agency says they'll send personnel to check it out.
Speaker 1: That's what that means. Is like people are crossing in
Speaker 1: mountainous areas with more or rugged terrain that blocks the
Speaker 1: towers from various angles and increases the likelihood they'll get
Speaker 1: lost and injured and prolongs their exposure to extreme temperature.
Speaker 1: The smugglers who are helping guide them through the desert
Speaker 1: select routes of travel that are outside of the visible
Speaker 1: range of the towers.
Speaker 3: The surveillance towers create a funnel effect that drives people
Speaker 3: to some of the most dangerous parts of the region,
Speaker 3: likely resulting in their death.
Speaker 1: All of that is really in keeping with the kind
Speaker 1: of plan that the Border Patrol first laid out in
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety four.
Speaker 3: This shows how prevention through deterrence has evolved through the years,
Speaker 3: first with Border Patrol agents, then checkpoints, a wall, and
Speaker 3: now surveillance infrastructure like these towers. Organizations in southern Arizona,
Speaker 3: like the Samaritans, are familiar with Jeff's work. That's why
Speaker 3: these volunteers are trying to prevent these deaths from happening
Speaker 3: in the first place. Back with Brian, Perla and Michael,
Speaker 3: we're driving up these huge hills by the border wall.
Speaker 12: All right, we made it alive.
Speaker 3: We make it over the hill and in the distance
Speaker 3: we see something. It's a group of four migrants. They're
Speaker 3: huddled underneath a blue tarp that they've attached to the
Speaker 3: border wall. They're trying to get some shade. We walked
Speaker 3: towards them and Brian offers them some food and water.
Speaker 3: The group says they're from across Africa. They tell us
Speaker 3: all of the countries that they've been through to get here.
Speaker 5: Africa.
Speaker 9: Peruado Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico and here. Yeah.
Speaker 3: They say there were more people here earlier, but border
Speaker 3: patrol picked them up and took them away in vans
Speaker 3: to get processed. But there wasn't enough room for them,
Speaker 3: so the agent said they'll come back later. But it's
Speaker 3: been several hours.
Speaker 13: Now where are you heading?
Speaker 12: Do you have a destination in the United States? Family, Yeah,
Speaker 12: there's New York.
Speaker 8: New York.
Speaker 6: All right.
Speaker 12: It's a long, long journey still, but you're here. You've
Speaker 12: gone a long ways and you've made it to the
Speaker 12: United States, so welcome.
Speaker 8: Like yeah.
Speaker 3: Brian, Perla and Michael go to the car and get
Speaker 3: water and food for them. Then we head out, and
Speaker 3: not too far away, there's another group of migrants near
Speaker 3: the wall. Four women sit under the shadow of the
Speaker 3: border wall. They're from across Latin America and they looked tired.
Speaker 3: One of the women here looks like she's in distress.
Speaker 3: She's crying. So I don't pull out my audio equipment
Speaker 3: and I just worked on my phone. They say they've
Speaker 3: been traveling for days. Brian, Mike w and Beerla give
Speaker 3: this group some supplies. Today has been pretty impactful for Beerla,
Speaker 3: especially with the group that we just met.
Speaker 6: To be a woman and to be in a situation
Speaker 6: so desperate, and to see them so young and where
Speaker 6: they will just seemingly trust anyone that comes in their
Speaker 6: path because they need assistance.
Speaker 3: Bedla reflects on the intense reactions from the women we
Speaker 3: just came across.
Speaker 6: We saw how the women started tearing up when she
Speaker 6: said and he never came back. That is a tale,
Speaker 6: That is a lie that is told in this desert,
Speaker 6: in and out right. But that is a very stressing
Speaker 6: to hear, just the psyche. Yeah, just like you have
Speaker 6: to be left behind, and then the trust that you
Speaker 6: have to put in someone that you have to keep
Speaker 6: yourself alive in one position until they come back and
Speaker 6: get you is so nerve wrecking.
Speaker 3: As we're wrapping up our day, I see something and
Speaker 3: see the helicopter straight in the distance.
Speaker 12: Where do you see it?
Speaker 5: Straight ahead?
Speaker 3: The helicopter's flying between some mountains, and it looks like
Speaker 3: it's headed straight towards us.
Speaker 12: They're going to come close enough to identify us.
Speaker 1: Really, Oh yeah, I look at this.
Speaker 3: The helicopter gets pretty close. I can feel some of
Speaker 3: the gusts of wind from its propeller.
Speaker 12: We might have tipped the ground sensor.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I might have tipped a sensor walking that's round
Speaker 3: of sensors. From here, we can see the pilot of
Speaker 3: the helicopter and they're clearly trying to identify us. The
Speaker 3: sound is so loud, and then just like that, it
Speaker 3: flies away.
Speaker 12: I'd never seen that before. That looked like, what the
Speaker 12: fuck was that they were taking our photos close up
Speaker 12: and they maybe of doing faithful recognition stuff.
Speaker 3: The idea that we may have tripped a ground sensor
Speaker 3: sending a signal that there was movement in this region,
Speaker 3: causing the helicopter to go and check it out, it's
Speaker 3: mind boggling. Of course, there's no way of confirming if
Speaker 3: this was the case here, but it's definitely possible because
Speaker 3: the border is always watching and the technology in the
Speaker 3: borderlands is always talking to each other. Surveillance towers tell
Speaker 3: border agents is detected someone, or a ground sensor rings
Speaker 3: an invisible alarm. But surveillance towers and ground sensors are
Speaker 3: just a tip of the iceberg when it comes to
Speaker 3: the virtual law. The Department of Homeland Security has an
Speaker 3: even wider arsenal of other border tech, and they're seeking
Speaker 3: to expand it in the near future.
Speaker 2: Dear listener, When we come back, we look at the
Speaker 2: industry of border surveillance and where all of this tech
Speaker 2: is headed. We're also going to learn about who is
Speaker 2: profiting and what all of this could mean for the
Speaker 2: border if more surveillance towers and infrastructure come to the region.
Speaker 2: So stay with us. Yes, hey, we're back. When we
Speaker 2: left off, we learned about how the surveillance towers in
Speaker 2: southern Arizona are acting like deadly funnels for migrants who
Speaker 2: are crossing through that region. We heard from advocates trying
Speaker 2: to prevent these deaths from even happening. Latino USA producer
Speaker 2: Fernando Lanos Junior is back with me in the studio
Speaker 2: to talk about the industry behind border surveillance and what
Speaker 2: the border could look like if more of this technology
Speaker 2: actually comes to the region.
Speaker 3: Hey, Ray, Hey Maria.
Speaker 2: So you've walked us through a lot of what has
Speaker 2: happened along the border already. But of course I'm also
Speaker 2: wondering from the business side of things, what companies are
Speaker 2: going to be building these new.
Speaker 3: Towers right now. Several companies like Elbett have already been
Speaker 3: awarded millions of dollars to build more surveillance towers across
Speaker 3: the border, and some of those those towers could be
Speaker 3: autonomous towers that use artificial intelligence to better detect people,
Speaker 3: and some of them already exist in parts of the border,
Speaker 3: and this tech opens up an entire kind of worms
Speaker 3: because it appears that more and more AI will be
Speaker 3: used in the future of border technology as well. The
Speaker 3: border patrol has made it pretty clear, and one can
Speaker 3: only imagine that if this technology continues to be used
Speaker 3: on the border, there could even be more deaths.
Speaker 2: But your reporting is also letting us know that there
Speaker 2: are some people who are trying to never forget those
Speaker 2: who have actually died. So Ray, you're going to pick
Speaker 2: up the story and take it from here.
Speaker 14: Where we're standing right now is right below an integrative
Speaker 14: fixed tower, which is probably about a quarter mile up
Speaker 14: the hill.
Speaker 3: I'm with journalist and author Todd Miller. We're at the
Speaker 3: base of a large hill a few miles outside of Nogales, Arizona.
Speaker 3: From here, we can see a looming integrated fixed tower
Speaker 3: staring down at us.
Speaker 14: Also, we're about to hike up this hill to get
Speaker 14: to this integrated fixed tower.
Speaker 3: Todd wrote a book named Empire of Borders the expansion
Speaker 3: of the US border around the world. He's one of
Speaker 3: the main experts when it comes to surveillance technology.
Speaker 11: My first thought as a journalist was, Oh.
Speaker 3: I feel I need to be looking way more into this.
Speaker 11: And I did. Actually, I did a number of trips.
Speaker 14: I went to Israel and Palestine twice looking into the
Speaker 14: sort of tech companies and why you know, academics in
Speaker 14: Israel call Israel the homeland security capital of the world,
Speaker 14: and why it's the.
Speaker 11: Place, per capita is that.
Speaker 14: Is selling more of this type of border infrastructure around
Speaker 14: the world.
Speaker 3: Well, it looks like we made it.
Speaker 11: We are now right below a surveillance tower.
Speaker 3: Todd says. This tower that we're looking at is one
Speaker 3: of the first Albert towers to be built here in
Speaker 3: southern Arizona back in twenty fifteen as part of a
Speaker 3: broader contract given to Albert the year before to build
Speaker 3: more than fifty surveillance towers across the Arizona Mexico border.
Speaker 3: Todd has not only researched these previous towers that were built,
Speaker 3: but he's also aware of the direction of where this
Speaker 3: technology is going in the near future.
Speaker 14: And it just seems like the trends are the budgets
Speaker 14: don't go down, they go up. The innovation doesn't go down,
Speaker 14: it goes up. The private industry involved in it, they
Speaker 14: want to make money, so they're constantly innovating new products,
Speaker 14: so there's a motivation there.
Speaker 3: Earlier this year, he saw the surveillance industry at play
Speaker 3: when he attended the seventeenth annual Border Security Expo more
Speaker 3: than three hundred miles away from Tucson in Elbaso, Texas.
Speaker 3: It's a convention where private companies like Albert listen to
Speaker 3: the needs of agencies like the Department of Homeland Security
Speaker 3: and pitched their tech and their ideas to them.
Speaker 14: The organizers say there are nearly two hundred private companies
Speaker 14: at this expo, and they also say it's the largest
Speaker 14: event in terms of participation ever.
Speaker 3: But this year's expo was a little different.
Speaker 14: I find it really disturbing, you know, as a journalist,
Speaker 14: that they didn't allow journalists to register, and this is
Speaker 14: the first time in seventeen years, you know, that they've
Speaker 14: done this.
Speaker 3: I was one of those journalists not allowed in. When
Speaker 3: I wrote to the Border Security Expo marketing team, I
Speaker 3: was told, quote our advisory board has decided to no
Speaker 3: longer allow press to attend end quote, but Todd still
Speaker 3: managed to get in because he's also a researcher and
Speaker 3: an academic.
Speaker 14: Journalists have always been able to calm and report on
Speaker 14: this super important annual convention where the nuts and bolts
Speaker 14: of what the border is, where it's going, the idea
Speaker 14: that there's private industry involved in a profit motive, that
Speaker 14: those sorts of things should be public knowledge.
Speaker 3: Todd said at the expo there was a growing talk
Speaker 3: of using more AI technology on the border. This is
Speaker 3: important because this type of tech is already being used
Speaker 3: on some surveillance towers, as I mentioned earlier.
Speaker 14: So we weren't even thinking about them five years ago,
Speaker 14: and all of a sudden, autonomous towers.
Speaker 3: And they're talking about how they can implement AI more
Speaker 3: into their workflows.
Speaker 14: So the border of Reladians don't have to do like
Speaker 14: certain bureaucratic work because some sort of AI program can
Speaker 14: do that. Thus the Border of Atlasian can focus more
Speaker 14: on enforcement or arresting people.
Speaker 3: But this also raises concerns if AI creeps into other
Speaker 3: border enforcement tools. Todd paints a pretty orwellian picture of
Speaker 3: what he thinks the future of the border could look like.
Speaker 14: There's a request for proposals for drones. A drone that
Speaker 14: I saw a couple of years ago. I had Department
Speaker 14: of Homeland Security that wanted a drone that could fly
Speaker 14: into an area without being heard and then come down
Speaker 14: and take people's pictures and have a facial recognition biometric
Speaker 14: technology installed in it. So Zaur, We're headed like these
Speaker 14: autonomous drones flying everywhere over people's heads, with robotic dogs
Speaker 14: like running around in patrols making arrest.
Speaker 3: If something like this were to happen and more AI
Speaker 3: is used, it could also raise new ethical and even
Speaker 3: legal questions.
Speaker 14: What happens when the first robots shoots somebody and kills them.
Speaker 14: Could you imagine like a drone from a ten thousand
Speaker 14: feet up or five thousand feet shooting rubber bullets down
Speaker 14: down at people, or concussion grenades or whatever.
Speaker 3: Todd says. These questions are important to ask because technology
Speaker 3: evolves so quickly, and some of the things that we
Speaker 3: see today, like the AI towers, were not really fathomable
Speaker 3: a few years ago. So it's all within the realm
Speaker 3: of possibility, especially if more heartline immigration hawks are elected
Speaker 3: into awe branches of government. A lot of this might
Speaker 3: sound like something out of a science fiction movie, but
Speaker 3: it's really not. We've recently seen how some countries like
Speaker 3: Israel can weaponize these technologies.
Speaker 15: At least nine people are dead and three thousand people
Speaker 15: have been injured across Lebanon after electronic paging devices used
Speaker 15: by the armed group Hezbolah exploded simultaneously this afternoon.
Speaker 10: A group of journalists have filed a lawsuit in a
Speaker 10: US court against the NSO Group. That's the Israeli company
Speaker 10: that operates Pegasus spyware, which has been used to monitor
Speaker 10: and track journalist, human rights activists, and dissidence across the globe.
Speaker 3: Todd also makes it a point to say he's heard
Speaker 3: counter narrative from some higher ups at the expo about AI.
Speaker 14: Not that they're against AI, because there's everyone's talking about AI,
Speaker 14: but that making sure that the human personnel actually makes
Speaker 14: the final decisions about anything.
Speaker 3: Here's audio that I obtained from a panel at the
Speaker 3: Border Security Expo where panelists discuss what changes they foresee
Speaker 3: when it comes to technology and securing the border.
Speaker 10: What's old is new and it's people first always. The
Speaker 10: technology supplements the infrastructure.
Speaker 3: That's David B. Miller with the Border Patrol. People like
Speaker 3: David think technology will make agents even better at their jobs,
Speaker 3: and with more technology comes bigger budgets. At the same discussion,
Speaker 3: the panelists talked about emerging threats and how foreign entities
Speaker 3: are ramping up their technology and AI and how it's
Speaker 3: important that the US keeps up.
Speaker 13: The last love of defense. This great nation has this,
Speaker 13: the US Bordatrol. Without them, that breaks down. We're doing
Speaker 13: and each and every one of you, with your technologians
Speaker 13: and your abilities to focus on helping spray order.
Speaker 3: And the message was clear. This was a bit of
Speaker 3: private companies in the audience to help US Border Patrol
Speaker 3: to provide the most up to date technology, and it
Speaker 3: was called in the federal government to also provide the
Speaker 3: money and resources to build even more surveillance technology. And
Speaker 3: more surveillance technology being deployed across the US Mexico border
Speaker 3: could make crossings and just living there even more dangerous.
Speaker 3: A group of about eight people are gathered in an
Speaker 3: empty parking lot in Tucson. They're waiting for Alvaro and
Speaker 3: c So. He's a local artist and activist. After a
Speaker 3: few minutes Alvado finally gets here.
Speaker 8: We are going to the US Mexico border to put
Speaker 8: a marker for someone who was founded a few months ago.
Speaker 3: Alvardo says that he's been doing this work for more
Speaker 3: than a decade now. It's part of a project known
Speaker 3: as Don Mueren losuenos, or where Dreams Die. He remembers
Speaker 3: those who have died in the desert by placing crosses
Speaker 3: in the spots where they were found. The brightly colored
Speaker 3: markers stand out in the desolate landscape.
Speaker 8: Those people had names, and they had families, and they
Speaker 8: have plans and dreams and feelings like all of us.
Speaker 8: They are looking for something that we all want, which
Speaker 8: is to find a place to call home and to
Speaker 8: be happy and have a way to support our families.
Speaker 8: And there's nothing illegal about that.
Speaker 3: This project means a lot to Alvaro because he's an
Speaker 3: immigrant from Colombia. He moved to the US in the
Speaker 3: sixties for college. He says that each cross he plants
Speaker 3: into the earth has a deep connection to him and
Speaker 3: his story. After Alvedo and the others filter into two cars,
Speaker 3: it's time to drive about an hour southeast of Tucson,
Speaker 3: towards the Patagonian mountains on the border. We arrive at
Speaker 3: our destination and scope out the area.
Speaker 1: So we're going to go up this little canyon right here.
Speaker 13: Back up that way.
Speaker 3: There are so many bright wildflowers beginning to bloom all
Speaker 3: around the group. And I walk towards a dried up
Speaker 3: riverbed with Alvedo leading with a GPS device in his hand.
Speaker 8: Someone died here last month. There was a lot of
Speaker 8: rain in March, and this person either try to cross
Speaker 8: over something and he drowned.
Speaker 3: Alvedo and the volunteers have a bucket with them. They
Speaker 3: dig a hole into the ground, carefully, place the cross
Speaker 3: into the hole and fill it with cement.
Speaker 8: He was twenty one years of age when he was found.
Speaker 8: He was fully fleshed. He had been here today. You
Speaker 8: should not be dying on.
Speaker 3: That young Alvardo says he got this information from the
Speaker 3: Pima County Medical Examiner's office in Tucson. He has worked
Speaker 3: with them closely for years. The man who drowned is
Speaker 3: one of more than one hundred migrants who have died
Speaker 3: in Arizona this year.
Speaker 8: Did you bring the Holy water with you? You're already,
Speaker 8: because what is it's life here in the desert.
Speaker 3: He places a rosary around the aqua colored cross and
Speaker 3: offers a moment of silence to honor the young man's life.
Speaker 3: As Alavado helps pack up, I think about all the
Speaker 3: times he's had to do this. He says, he stopped
Speaker 3: keeping track because it can be a lot. He goes
Speaker 3: out to the desert at least once every week to
Speaker 3: do this work. Alavado emphasizes to me that it's no
Speaker 3: coincidence that his death took place out here in the
Speaker 3: middle of nowhere.
Speaker 8: The astrology of the border patrol was to make the
Speaker 8: trip as difficult as possible. Prevention through the terrence is
Speaker 8: to send people through the most difficult parts of the
Speaker 8: desert where there's no water, there's no help. All of
Speaker 8: the things that go along with that policy towers, higher walls, drones, sensors, more,
Speaker 8: border patrol ages have not impeded in any way people crossing.
Speaker 3: Alvado isn't wrong. In Pima County, the Medical Examiner's Office
Speaker 3: has found at least four thousand remains since the year
Speaker 3: two thousand. People have died from things like hypothermia, heat exhaustion,
Speaker 3: and dehydration from crossing in the most remote parts of
Speaker 3: the desert.
Speaker 8: So this country has spent billions of dollars importing technology
Speaker 8: from other countries. Who are who do this kind of
Speaker 8: creating walls and keeping people separated, and we're doing the
Speaker 8: same things here.
Speaker 3: Alvado sticks a third cross of the day into the ground.
Speaker 3: This one is bright orange. A thirty year old man
Speaker 3: died here late last year.
Speaker 8: So this is a symbol for one person who came
Speaker 8: looking for that, but he didn't make it. So is
Speaker 8: a moment for you to suppose for a moment I
Speaker 8: say to yourself, WHOA someone died here? How unfortunate. And
Speaker 8: that's what I'm hoping for, that that this crocess will
Speaker 8: elevate a little bit of attention that and a little
Speaker 8: bit of empathy.
Speaker 3: More surveillance towers will be built soon. And with Trump's
Speaker 3: new pick of Tom Homan, a former Immigration and Customs
Speaker 3: Enforcement director, as his orders are and Stephen Miller as
Speaker 3: his deputy Chief of Stafford Policy and Homeland Security, and
Speaker 3: not to mention the Governor of South Dakota, Christinome as
Speaker 3: Trump's pick to lead the Department of Homeland Security, we
Speaker 3: will have to wait and see how immigration will play
Speaker 3: out along the border. Money has already been awarded, and
Speaker 3: there are millions of dollars sitting on a bipartisan border
Speaker 3: security bill that is waiting to be passed and signed,
Speaker 3: and academics like Jeff who we heard from earlier, argue
Speaker 3: that the research he's collected in southern Arizona can be
Speaker 3: applicable to other parts of the border where the surveillance
Speaker 3: towers will go up.
Speaker 1: We also see now this aggressive expansion of this surveillance
Speaker 1: infrastructure into Texas, into California, and I think it's very
Speaker 1: likely having the same effect of contributing to these patterns
Speaker 1: of mortality by causing people to walk longer distances to
Speaker 1: try to get around these surveillance towers and their view.
Speaker 3: Shed a lot of hopes that one day, in the
Speaker 3: very near future, there can be a solution, because he
Speaker 3: says the current policies and technologies in place are not working.
Speaker 8: Whether it comes from the Republic, comes down from the Democrats,
Speaker 8: they'll ever get together and come up with a policy
Speaker 8: that they agree with. Some of these debts may stop altogether,
Speaker 8: and I'm hoping that I'll be around to see that.
Speaker 3: Until then, the border will continue to watch those who
Speaker 3: cross it or are simply around it, and those eyes
Speaker 3: are projected to not only get sharper, but also a
Speaker 3: lot bigger.
Speaker 2: Today's episode was produced by Renaldo Leanos Junior with editing
Speaker 2: by Mitra Bonshahi. It was mixed by Julia Caruso with
Speaker 2: engineering support from JJ Carubin, and it was fact checked
Speaker 2: by Rosa na Guire. The Latino USA team also includes
Speaker 2: Jessica Ellis, Victoria Estrada, Stephanie Lebo, Andrea Lopez, Gruzsado, Luis Luna,
Speaker 2: Glorimar Marquez, Marta Martinez, Neur Saudi and Nancy Trujillo. Benile
Speaker 2: Ramirez is our co executive producer along with myself and
Speaker 2: I'm your host Mariaino Rossa. Join us again on our
Speaker 2: next episode. In the meantime, look for us on social media.
Speaker 2: I'll see you on INSTAGRAMA Chao not Devayes.
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