A billion-dollar border camera network has not stopped migrant deaths
Graciela Gómez Hernández died in California’s Otay Mountain Wilderness despite being one mile from a surveillance tower, showing that pervasive border monitoring does not guarantee timely rescue. The General Dynamics tower’s electro-optical and infrared cameras can track targets 5 to 7 miles away, while newer systems use AI to distinguish people from animals. The wider network has cost more than a billion dollars, yet migrants continue to die in the terrain it watches.