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In a recurring feature in this newsletter, I'm publishing court documents that you won't have seen anywhere else, ones that show how the feds are using the latest technology to carry out surveillance in the real world. I call it The Wire IRL.
This week's edition looks at how border officials are relying on computers rather than people to spot illegal crossings. Though Donald Trump is no longer president, he spent billions building a virtual wall on the border with Mexico.
That virtual wall came in handy down in Arizona in November, where patrol officers had inspected a Chrysler van at a checkpoint. Two Americans were in front, but there was something suspicious about the backseats, according to a search warrant: they were covered in "brush and dirt." The officers suspected that some passengers had been dropped off at a point some way down the road, let out, and were walking around the checkpoint, the court document noted, but they let the drivers move on.
It perhaps wasn't much of a surprise that, not long after, some sensors went off letting one of the border patrol agents know that there were people traversing the Arizonian desert not far from where he was, the search warrant noted. After the agent watched those people enter a van beyond the checkpoint, using a nightvision and infrared "recon device," he alerted a colleague, who subsequently stopped the van and found individuals wearing camouflage inside, the government said. (The suspects in the case have been charged, but they remain innocent until proven guilty. Their respective lawyers hadn't responded to a request for comment.)
This case caught my eye as I've been researching some of the companies making big money from virtual border wall tech. There are a handful manufacturing sensors, some picking up physical movements, others detecting sound, and during the Trump years their stock rose considerably. Surveillance towers made by Palmer Luckey's new venture Anduril and Israeli surveillance giant Elbit Systems also heavily rely on sensors, which feed AI that tells border agents what's going on.
Take a look at the whole search warrant if you want a good idea of what's happening at the Mexico border and what surveillance tools are proving useful for the U.S. government.
And if you have any tips on government surveillance or cybercrime, drop me an email on tbrewster@forbes.com or message me on Signal at +447837496820.
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