Nov. 7 (UPI) — Texas’ Big Bend sector of the U.S. Border Patrol is beefing up surveillance by adding new, autonomous surveillance towers, U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced Thursday, bringing the total number of towers in the area to 54.
“These solar-powered towers, equipped with advanced long-range sensors, including night thermal technology, offer real-time surveillance and enhance agents’ ability to respond swiftly to border activity,” CBP said in a statement. “These towers have been instrumental in identifying and tracking border crossings, contributing significantly to successful apprehensions in the sector.”
CPB said the towers, which give them “complete domain awareness” in Big Bend Sector, have detected 1,686 instances of border activity by being able to detect and monitor movement in remote and rugged terrain. The agency said state-of-the-art cameras and detectors on the towers allow agents to differentiate between human and vehicle activity in remote stretches of the desert.
They can relay that video in real time to agents in the field who may be able to make apprehensions. The artificial intelligence-infused ASTs, each about 33 feet high, can also tell the difference between human activity and animals crossing the desert, reducing the number of “false alarms,” CPB said.
Migrant encounters for Fiscal Year 2024 are down 58.4% compared to Fiscal Year 2023, partly due to use of ASTs in the Big Bend sector to disrupt criminal smuggling operations, CPB said in the release.
CPB said that since April 2021, the towers have detected 18,339 instances of border activity, resulting in 12,192 apprehensions. They are positioned to make sure that there are no gaps in coverage or that some areas are double covered.
Border security has come under increasing scrutiny during the Biden presidency and became a prominent campaign issue exploited by President-elect Donald Trump during his campaign.
The truth is, border apprehensions are at their lowest levels of the Biden presidency but are only down after historic highs earlier in his term, thanks in part of the end of COVID-era restrictions that allowed more migrants back into the United States. CBP virtually sealed the borders during COVID, letting next to no migrants into the United States for fear of spreading the pandemic.
