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Border Patrol Wants Advanced AI to Spy on American Cities
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of The Intercept

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent looks on as smoke fills an area outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs building during a protest Saturday, June 14, 2025, in Portland, Ore. Photo: Jenny Kane/AP

The Intercept, July 23, 2025
Posted: August 7th, 2025
https://theintercept.com/2025/07/23/cbp-border-patrol-ai-sur...

U.S. Customs and Border Protection, flush with billions in new funding, is seeking “advanced AI” technologies to surveil urban residential areas, increasingly sophisticated autonomous systems, and even the ability to see through walls. A CBP presentation for an “Industry Day” summit with private sector vendors ... lays out a detailed wish list of tech CBP hopes to purchase. State-of-the-art, AI-augmented surveillance technologies will be central to the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant campaign, which will extend deep into the interior of the North American continent. [A] reference to AI-aided urban surveillance appears on a page dedicated to the operational needs of Border Patrol’s “Coastal AOR,” or area of responsibility, encompassing the entire southeast of the United States. “In the best of times, oversight of technology and data at DHS is weak and has allowed profiling, but in recent months the administration has intentionally further undermined DHS accountability,” explained [Spencer Reynolds, a former attorney with the Department of Homeland Security]. “Artificial intelligence development is opaque, even more so when it relies on private contractors that are unaccountable to the public — like those Border Patrol wants to hire. Injecting AI into an environment full of biased data and black-box intelligence systems will likely only increase risk and further embolden the agency’s increasingly aggressive behavior.”

Note: For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on AI and immigration enforcement corruption.


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