The
House
Committee
on
Homeland
Security
is
looking
into
Customs
and
Border
Protection’s
(CBP)
surveillance
network
in
the
wake
of
a
report
that
nearly
one-third
of
the
agency’s
cameras
along
the
US-Mexico
border
don’t
work.
Privacy
advocates
say
this
is
just
the
latest
instance
of
expensive
border
surveillance
infrastructure
not
working
as
advertised.
An
internal
Border
Patrol
memo
obtained
by
NBC
News
said
that
“several
technical
problems”
had
contributed
to
a
large-scale
outage
of
the
Remote
Video
Surveillance
Systems,
a
series
of
surveillance
towers
and
cameras
that
have
been
used
to
remotely
surveil
the
border
since
2011.
According
to
the
memo,
approximately
150
of
the
500
cameras
are
non-operational.
The
memo
says
that
the
Federal
Aviation
Administration
—
and
not
CBP
—
is
responsible
for
servicing
and
repairing
the
cameras,
and
that
the
agency
had
internal
problems
meeting
Border
Patrol’s
needs.
Border
Patrol
is
considering
replacing
the
FAA
with
a
contractor
that
can
provide
“adequate
technical
support”
for
the
cameras,
the
memo
states.
Rep.
Mark
E.
Green
(R-TN),
the
chair
of
the
House
Homeland
Security
Committee,
has
asked
DHS
Secretary
Alejandro
Mayorkas
to
turn
over
information
on
the
camera
system
by
October
23rd.
In
his
letter
to
Mayorkas,
Green
called
the
cameras
and
other
surveillance
tools
“a
force
multiplier.”
The
letter
also
claims
that
sources
told
the
committee
that
66
percent
of
the
cameras
were
inoperable
—
a
much
higher
figure
than
the
one
cited
in
the
Border
Patrol
memo
reported
by
NBC
News.
NBC’s
report
also
mentions
that
the
bipartisan
border
infrastructure
bill
promoted
by
President
Joe
Biden
would
have
included
funding
to
repair
the
camera
systems.
Senate
Republicans
repeatedly
blocked
the
bill’s
passage.
Though
Green’s
letter
frames
the
cameras’
malfunctioning
as
a
new
issue,
a
separate
CBP
official
told
NBC
News
that
the
agency’s
surveillance
apparatus
has
not
been
properly
managed
for
the
past
20
years.
As
the
Electronic
Frontier
Foundation
recently
noted,
CBP
and
Border
Patrol
have
tested
various
iterations
of
a
surveillance
network
along
the
border
for
decades
—
and
time
after
time,
these
systems
have
been
shown
to
be
costly
and
ineffective
at
reducing
unauthorized
border
crossings.
CBP’s
expanded
surveillance
of
the
border
has
funneled
migrants
onto
more
remote,
dangerous
routes
along
the
border,
contributing
to
a
significant
increase
in
deaths.
In
any
case,
unauthorized
border
crossings
have
dropped
significantly
in
recent
months:
in
September,
CBP
reported
the
lowest
level
of
migrant
encounters
between
ports
of
entry
since
2020.
Original author: Gaby Del Valle
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