There's something a little suspicious in the Big Beautiful Bill signed into law by President Trump.
The law allocates 2.8 billion for border surveillance technology. This includes -- and is not limited to -- drones, tower-based surveillance, deployable ground sensors, vehicle and dismount exploration radars (radar on drones), seismic tunnel detection systems, advanced unattended surveillance sensors, mobile vehicle-mounted and man-portable surveillance, and fiber-optic sensing.
If you're worried about the government watching you, it's not a comforting shopping list.
Based on the text of the bill, we shouldn't be worried. All this technological power is explicitly restricted for use by border security. And there's nothing wrong or suspicious about funding border security. As we're constantly reminded, this is what Mr. Trump campaigned on. Not sure if everyone was on board with masked police taking people off the street, but assuming the person is here illegally, it's hard to argue with the draconian point that the administration is doing what it promised.
So what's the issue with making it a priority in the budget? Well, maybe nothing. But there are two things that make it concerning.
First, there is no longer a crisis at the border. The Trump administration has done an incredible job reducing crossings. People haven't stopped trying, but the decrease in numbers is beyond significant. It's downright impressive.
In June of 2024, 53,858 people were apprehended by the U.S. Border Patrol along the Southern border. This June, that number dropped to 6,070. For those of you who enjoy math, that's an 89% drop. Just to rub it in, there were more arrests in just the first three days of June 2024, -- 7,000 -- than the total month of June 2025.
In the big picture, this year apprehensions at the border are down a staggering 73%, dropping from 746,998 in 2024 (through June) to just 201,356.
Even more impressive, you could argue the actual number of immigrants coming into the country via the border has completely stopped. In May of 2024, under President Biden's catch and release policy, 62,000 apprehended migrants were then released back into the United States. This May, that number was zero. And this past June? Zero again.
The Trump administration should be popping champagne and flying a "Mission Accomplished" banner. But if they are celebrating, they are also acting like the crisis has gotten much worse, based on their budget increase for immigration enforcement.
This brings us to the second concern: the budget is overkill for the stated objective.
During the period where the crisis has been well handled, the federal budget for border and immigration was around $28 billion.
In the bill that just became a law, there is $170 billion devoted to immigration enforcement. This is an eye popping number. This would indicate a massive operation is about to unfold. Russia spends $149 billion on their entire military, and they're in an active war. In fact, aside from China and the U.S., no country on Earth spends anywhere near $170 on their entire military, let alone border security.
This is not to say we shouldn't spend money on things if we have it to spend. It's to call out that this amount begs the question: why does the government feel it needs $170 billion for a situation that ain't all that bad? Is there some other plan they have in mind? Is there some bigger mission all that surveillance tech might be repurposed for?
Well, we don't want to be paranoid. The bill explicitly requires the money be used for border security. There's no need to wonder if those powerful surveillance drones would be used on U.S. citizens.
Except this happens all the time.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) already has the largest fleet of drones in the United States. And they frequently loan them out to other agencies. Between 2010 and 2012 alone, CBP flew nearly 700 missions for other federal, state, and local agencies--such as DEA, Coast Guard, and law enforcement--covering drug raids, disaster relief, missing‑person searches, and more. CBP Predator drones have flown over SWAT stand-offs and civil rights protests. We can pretend there's a red line where all this surveillance tech would be off limits to civil agencies, but it's not been the case.
A closer look at the bill just signed into law reveals the following text: "None of the funds made available under subsection (a) may be used for the procurement or deployment of surveillance towers along the southwest border and northern border that have not been tested and accepted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection to deliver autonomous capabilities." This means that we're not just getting surveillance towers. The law mandates these towers are manned by AI that can make autonomous decisions.
The oppressive world of George Orwell's "1984" always seemed far fetched, with the government's telescreens watching citizens at all times. Sure, it's a warning about a society we never want to live in, but we never really believed it would actually happen.
Oddly enough, we just gave the government plenty of funding to get started.