In Derby, Vermont, a tall, thin tower stands on a hillside and surveys the landscape.
At the top of the tower, the cameras are facing north, towards Quebec, just a few hundred meters away.
The tower, and at least two other similar towers, appeared on the U.S. side, near the Canadian border, at some point in the past two years. They are part of a response to the increase in irregular border crossings in the region, mostly involving people entering the United States via Canada.
The towers are new, but they have already been dotting the southern border of the United States for years. The US 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 deter and catch migrants.
Today, American authorities are deploying the same technologies on the northern border. Canada will soon follow suit by increasing investments in drones, sensors and other technologies, including its own surveillance towers – part of its commitment to strengthening the border to deter President-elect Donald Trump from his threat of impose massive customs duties.
But advocates and experts say the deployment of new technologies risks endangering migrants without deterring them, raising privacy concerns and generating millions of dollars for military contractors.
“There is now this standardization of technology at the northern border… where Canada may feel like they have to accept what the United States is asking for,” said Petra Molnar, associate director of the Refugee Lab of York University and author of The walls have eyesa book about the confluence of technology and migration.
“There’s going to be more towers; there’s going to be more drone surveillance and ground surveillance.”
Recently, on the American side of the Canadian border, near the town of Stanstead, Quebec, the landscape was calm. A shallow ditch or clearing in the forest with intermittent stone markers are among the only features marking the border between the two countries.
But the new watchtower dominates the city and is easily visible from Canada.
Perched on the hill, the tower enjoys 360-degree views of the surrounding countryside.
It is a visible symbol of the United States’ commitment to policing its northern border. Documents show that U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (USBP) plans to rely on remote surveillance in the Swanton sector, a large swath of territory near Quebec that includes upstate New York and Vermont, where most irregular crossings take place.
An environmental assessment submitted by USBP to support construction of the tower, which was first reported by VT Excavatorsays the agency needs more video surveillance in remote areas to monitor “illegal entries without hiring numerous officers in vehicles to perform the same functions.”
“The increasing frequency and nature of illegal cross-border activities, as well as the geographic area in which these activities take place, create the need for a technology-based surveillance capability,” the agency said.
USBP intercepted more than 21,000 migrants arriving illegally from Canada in the first 10 months of 2024, according to data released by U.S. Customs and Border Protectionincluding nearly 18,000 in the Swanton sector.
The northern border looks more like the south
On December 17, Dominic LeBlanc, Canada’s Minister of Public Safety, announced $1.3 billion over six years for new border security measures.
LeBlanc said the money will be used, in part, to create a task force that will “provide 24-hour surveillance between ports of entry and supplement existing foot and vehicle patrols.”
The RCMP was slowly step up its use of drones patrolling the borderaccording to the latest available data. In 2022, it flew drones approximately 120 times for reasons related to border security.
But LeBlanc said the new task force would 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 control the border.
But critics of these technological solutions say they are expensive, difficult to maintaindo little to deter people from trying to cross in the first place – and can put migrants at risk by forcing them to take more dangerous routes.
A 2019 University of Arizona Study found that border control infrastructure, including surveillance towers, pushes migration routes into rougher and more dangerous terrain, leading to more deaths in these areas.
Molnar said the technology deployed at the borders — much of which, she said, is tested at the U.S. southern border before being sold elsewhere — dehumanizes people trying to cross the border and poses privacy concerns regarding data collection for those who live. or travel near borders.
“This goes beyond privacy,” she said. “The problem is that if we introduce more surveillance and people know about it, they won’t stop coming. They will take dangerous routes through frozen farmers’ fields and rivers. Which is really worrying , is that this is going to mimic the humanitarian crisis occurring on the border between the United States and Mexico.”
David Grondin, professor of communications at the University of Montreal and researcher at the Center for International Studies and Researchsaid Canada was pressing the “panic button” on border security in response to Trump’s tariff threat.
“It addresses U.S. concerns but there is no real guarantee that it will lead to a more secure border,” he said.
Grondin and Molnar said they attended exhibitions on border security technology. At recent expos, vendors have touted drones, sensors and surveillance cameras, in addition to ubiquitous artificial intelligence-based tools to recognize and stop smugglers and migrants.