In Derby, Vermont, a tall, slender tower stands on a hill, surveying the landscape.
At the top of the tower, the cameras face north towards Quebec – a few hundred meters away.
The tower, and at least two others like it, appeared on the American side, near the Canadian border, at some point in the past two years or so. They are part of a response to an increase in irregular border crossings in the region, mostly involving people entering the US through Canada.
The towers are new, but they've already dotted the southern US border for years. The U.S. Border Patrol has been installing surveillance towers equipped with cameras and other sensors along the Mexican border since the mid-2000s. The agency also uses drones and a litany of other technologies to intercept and apprehend immigrants there.
Now, US officials are deploying the same technologies along the northern border. Canada will soon reciprocate by increasing investment in drones, sensors and other technology, including its own surveillance towers — part of a commitment to tighten borders to deter President Donald Trump from threatening to impose massive trade tariffs.
But advocates and experts say the use of new technologies risks putting migrants at risk while failing to deter them, raises privacy concerns, and will drive millions of dollars to military contractors.
“There's this normalization of technology now at the northern border … where Canada feels like it has to accept whatever the United States is asking,” said author Petra Molnar, associate director of York University's refugee lab. There are eyes on the wallsA book about the intersection of technology and migration.
“There's going to be more towers; there's going to be more drone surveillance, ground surveillance.”
After announcing a $1.3B plan to increase security at the U.S. border, Canadian officials offered an idea for how that money could be spent.
On a recent morning at the Canadian border in the US, Stansted, Que. Closer to the city, the landscape was peaceful. One of the things that mark the line between two countries is to clear stone markers at intervals in a shallow ditch or forest.
But a new surveillance tower is in town, and easily visible from Canada.
Atop its perch on the hill, the tower enjoys a 360-degree view of the surrounding countryside.
It is a visual symbol of America's commitment to guarding its northern border. The documents show that the United States Customs and Border Patrol (USBP) plans to focus on remote monitoring of the Swanton area, a large area near Quebec that includes northern New York and Vermont where most irregular crossings occur.
Environmental assessment submitted by USBP to support tower construction, which was reported for the first time VT diggerThe agency says it needs more video surveillance to monitor “illegal entries without having multiple agents in vehicles to perform the same tasks” in remote areas.
“The increasing frequency and nature of illegal cross-border activities, as well as the geographic area in which these activities take place, creates a need for technology-based surveillance capabilities,” the agency said.
USBP intercepted more than 21,000 immigrants crossing illegally from Canada in the first 10 months of 2024, according to Data published by US Customs and Border ProtectionAbout 18,000 of them are in the Swanton area.
The northern border looks like the south
On December 17, Canada's Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc announced $1.3 billion over six years to spend on new security measures at the border.
LeBlanc said the money, in part, would go toward establishing a task force that would “provide around-the-clock surveillance between ports of entry and supplement existing foot and vehicle patrols.”
The RCMP has been slow Increasing use of drones in border patrolsAs per the latest available data. In 2022, it flew drones about 120 times for reasons related to border security.
But LeBlanc said the new task force will use aerial surveillance and mobile surveillance towers — essentially mobile versions of the towers on the U.S. side of the border. LeBlanc also said Canada would use artificial intelligence to help police its borders.
But critics of these technological solutions say they are expensive, Difficult to maintainDo little to stop people from trying to cross in the first place – and could endanger migrants by forcing them to take more dangerous routes.
A 2019 University of Arizona Study Border enforcement infrastructure, including surveillance towers, pushes migration routes into more rugged and dangerous terrain, leading to more deaths in those areas, the study found.
Molnar said the technology deployed at the border — much of which, she said, has been tested at the U.S. southern border before being sold elsewhere — dehumanizes people trying to cross the border as well as raises privacy concerns about data collection for residents. Or travel near the border.
“It goes beyond privacy,” she said. “The concern is that if we introduce more surveillance that people are going to know, they're not going to stop coming. They're going to take dangerous routes through frozen farm fields, rivers. It's really worrying that this is going to happen. The humanitarian crisis that's happening on the US-Mexico border. to imitate.”
David Grondin, University of Montreal communication professor and researcher Center for International Studies and ResearchCanada says it is hitting the “panic button” on border security in response to Trump's tariff threats.
“It is responding to American concerns but there is no real guarantee that it will lead to a more secure border,” he said.
Grondin and Molnar said they attended a border security technology exhibition. At a recent expo, vendors used drones, sensors and surveillance cameras in addition to ubiquitous artificial intelligence-powered tools to identify and catch smugglers and migrants.
