TL;DR: DHS is pouring hundreds of millions into surveillance tech in 2026, including a $1 billion blanket purchase agreement with Palantir, $100+ million for AI-powered mobile surveillance trucks, and 198 AI border towers, all while filing zero privacy impact assessments this year.
The $1 billion shopping list
FedScoop obtained DHS contract forecasts showing the agency's 2026 spending plans. The itemized list reads like a surveillance wish list:
- $1 billion: Palantir blanket purchase agreement (five years)
- $100+ million: Modular Mobile Surveillance System (M2S2)
- $50 million: Mobile surveillance capability enhancements
- 198 AI towers: 148 upgrades plus 50 new next-gen towers
- $11 million: Cellebrite phone extraction renewal
- ~$2 million: Paragon spyware (reactivated after Biden freeze)
This comes after the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" dumped $191 billion into DHS coffers last July. That's not a typo. The bill nearly doubled the department's resources overnight [1].
What Palantir gets to touch
The $1 billion deal, signed in February 2026, gives every major DHS component access to Palantir's platforms without competitive bidding. CBP, ICE, FEMA, and CISA can all just... place orders [2].
Two platforms will be deployed:
- Gotham: Integrates and visualizes "large volumes of structured and unstructured data" from enforcement databases, biometric systems, financial records, and travel data
- Foundry: Handles "data integration, workflow management and operational modeling"
Translation: machine learning models crunching your travel history, financial transactions, and biometric data to generate "risk assessments" and "link analyses." The contract language is vague enough to cover just about anything [2].
AI surveillance trucks: M2S2
The Modular Mobile Surveillance System is exactly what it sounds like: AI-powered observation towers mounted on 4x4 trucks. Park anywhere, unfold the mast, start scanning [3].
The specs are unsettling:
- Computer vision "fast enough for real-time operator response"
- Autonomous operation "under any lighting or weather conditions"
- AI trained to distinguish between "a cow," people, weapons, and "contraband-laden backpacks"
- Satellite, cellular, and radio links feeding data to CBP command centers
- Modular design: swap components between vehicles in under 24 hours
The same computer vision technology was "previously developed for war drones." Now it's coming to a truck near you [3].
198 AI towers along the border
CBP already has 200 camera towers in Texas alone. Now they're getting AI upgrades [4].
General Dynamics is pitching what they call the "Relocatable Autonomous Surveillance Tower":
- Longer-range cameras, electro-optical systems, radar, and LIDAR
- On-device AI for image recognition: no need to transmit full video
- Solar-powered (no diesel refueling trips)
- Satellite comms for remote areas
- Remote software updates to "quickly validate" new AI capabilities
148 existing towers get the AI treatment this year. 50 new "next-generation" towers get added to the network. That's 198 AI-powered eyes watching the border [4].
The phone-hacking toolkit
Cellebrite's $11 million renewal gives DHS "universal forensic extraction devices" that can image phones and pull app data, messages, and metadata. Standard stuff for border agents [5].
Paragon is more interesting. The Biden administration froze a $2 million contract for Paragon's spyware, software that can "mine data from phones without the owner's consent." The Trump administration unfroze it [5].
Between Paragon, Cellebrite, and Palantir's data fusion platforms, DHS has assembled a phone-to-database pipeline. Your device data goes in, "risk assessments" come out.
Zero privacy reviews in 2026
Here's the part that should concern you: DHS filed exactly zero Privacy Impact Assessments in 2026. None. After a high of 24 in 2024, the number dropped to 8 in 2025, then flatlined [1].
The DHS Inspector General recently accused the agency of "obstructing audits" of biometric data management and immigration enforcement activities [1].
So we've got:
- $191 billion in new funding
- Hundreds of millions in surveillance contracts
- A $1 billion Palantir deal covering everything from biometrics to financial records
- AI trucks and towers going up everywhere
- Zero privacy reviews and active obstruction of audits
That's not oversight. That's a blank check.
What this means for you
If you cross the border, your phone can be imaged, your face can be scanned, and your data can be fed into Palantir's "risk assessment" machine learning models. If you live near the border, AI towers are watching 24/7. If you're anywhere in range of these systems, your data might end up in Gotham's "link analysis."
The spending is locked in. The contracts are signed. The only question is what happens when these capabilities get normalized, and when they expand beyond the border.
References
- FedScoop: DHS-built surveillance apparatus to surge in year ahead, documents show
- SiliconANGLE: DHS awards Palantir up to $1B to deploy AI and data analytics platforms
- Techstrong.ai: DHS Pursues AI-Powered Mobile Surveillance for Border Enforcement
- Defense One: AI-enabled watch towers set to proliferate along the border
- Access Now: The U.S. has reactivated its Paragon contract, and it should alarm everyone