TL;DR: On July 20, the Electronic Frontier Foundation reported that the Department of Homeland Security plans to nearly triple the number of border surveillance towers, from the current 830 to 2,300 by 2034, funded by $1 billion from the One Big Beautiful Act. The proposed hardware is Anduril's Sentry tower, which runs AI-based detection using radar, thermal infrared, and optical cameras. The Government Accountability Office's annual assessment of DHS acquisitions, GAO-26-108118, published June 9, is the underlying source for the buildout numbers [1][2].
The Buildout: 830 to 2,300 Towers by 2034
Karen Gullo of the EFF wrote on July 20 that DHS plans to nearly triple the number of surveillance towers along U.S. borders, going from the current 830 to 2,300 by 2034 [1]. The $1 billion cost comes from the One Big Beautiful Act, the massive tax and spending law President Trump signed in 2025 [1]. DHS expects to expend $1 billion in taxpayer dollars on the buildout, according to the EFF.
The numbers come from the GAO's June 9 annual assessment of DHS acquisitions, GAO-26-108118. That report is titled DHS Annual Assessment: Dynamic Environment Affects Efforts to Manage Acquisition Risks. It describes DHS plans to spend at least $55 billion across its acquisition portfolio, with at least $14 billion in additional funding under current legislation flowing mostly to Coast Guard and Customs and Border Protection programs [2]. The Integrated Surveillance Tower program is the existing backbone. DHS already operates hundreds of these fixed towers across the southern and northern borders, and the buildout adds about 1,470 towers over the next decade, plus upgrades to autonomous capability on existing installations [1][2].
This is the first systemic accounting of the buildout. Earlier reporting on Anduril's border contracts has tracked the vendor side, the contracts worth $550 million or more since 2018 and the One Big Beautiful Bill's autonomous-capability requirement that locked out every competitor [3]. The GAO document puts the same dollar flow on the federal side and adds the fielded-tower count.
What the Towers Actually Do
The proposed hardware is Anduril's Sentry tower, part of CBP's Autonomous Surveillance Tower (AST) program [1]. The EFF describes the sensor stack as AI-based systems using radar, thermal infrared, and optical systems to track targets over long distances [1]. Anduril's Sentry mast pairs with the company's Lattice AI software, the same platform already running the more than 300 towers Anduril has deployed along the southern border [3]. A single agent can monitor dozens of towers remotely across multiple CBP sectors, with alerts in seconds of detection.
The buildout does not stop at towers. The EFF notes that DHS is also adding tethered aerostats, unattended ground sensors, drones, automated license plate readers, and game cameras disguised as trail cams [1]. The buildout is one integrated surveillance mesh, and the towers are the visible backbone. The same vendor pipeline that delivered 300+ Anduril towers on the southern border is now the procurement vehicle for the 1,470 new towers on both borders [3][1].
The Privacy Track Record: Six Out of Six Failures
The buildout is moving ahead against a documented privacy failure in the existing programs. A separate GAO assessment, GAO-25-107302, found that CBP failed to address six out of six main privacy protections across three of its border surveillance programs: surveillance towers, aerostats, and unattended ground sensors [4]. The privacy baseline is the one CBP was supposed to implement before scaling any of these programs further. The buildout proceeds anyway.
The EFF's framing of the buildout is blunt. The group calls it a digital dumpster fire for human rights and civil liberties, and describes the towers as capable of spying on homes on both sides of the border [1]. This publication has tracked the same pattern in Calexico, where a CBP tower casts a shadow over a baseball field and residential homes on the U.S. side, and in San Clemente, where the same Anduril hardware has been deployed into a residential neighborhood [5][6].
The GAO's annual assessment adds an oversight collapse to the picture. The June 9 report notes that some DHS programs lost as much as 20% of their staff, putting program goals at risk, and that in October 2025 DHS dissolved a key acquisition oversight office [2]. The privacy baseline for the existing programs failed, the oversight office is gone, and the buildout target is 2034.
The Border-Search Hook
The EFF's article ties the tower buildout to the legal fight over device searches at the border, citing Alasaad v. Duke as the lead effort defending the rights of individuals whose devices have been searched or seized upon entering the country [1]. The Fourth Circuit's July 13 ruling in U.S. v. Belmonte Cardozo held that CBP officers can manually search a phone at the border without individualized suspicion, and EFF framed the decision as a loophole the new towers will operate inside [7].
The wiring matters. A tower records the plate and the time of every vehicle that crosses its field of view. A CBP officer at a primary inspection booth can run that plate and pull the border-crossing history. The Fourth Circuit's ruling in Belmonte Cardozo means the officer does not need individualized suspicion before pulling out the phone. The towers and the legal carve-out together form the entry pipeline.
What to Watch
August 2026: First FY 2027 tower task orders. The first wave of new tower purchases will surface in CBP's FY 2027 acquisition plan. Watch for individual task orders against the existing AST and IST contracts, especially the Anduril awards that followed the One Big Beautiful Bill's autonomous-capability requirement [3][2].
September 2026: DHS follow-up on the six failed privacy protections. GAO-25-107302 set out a baseline. Watch for the follow-up DHS privacy assessment on the AST program and whether DHS addresses the six failed protections before scaling the program or after [4].
Through 2034: 1,470 new towers fielded. The buildout target is 2,300 towers by 2034. Each annual deployment requires siting decisions, which means local council votes, lease renewals, and the same kind of community mapping the EFF has been publishing since 2022 [1]. Calexico and San Clemente are the early fights. Expect at least a dozen more in the same pattern [5][6].
Sources
- EFF Deeplinks, Karen Gullo: An Explosion of Surveillance Towers is Coming to U.S. Borders, Costing Over $1 Billion, July 20, 2026. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/07/explosion-surveillance-towers-coming-us-borders-costing-over-1-billion
- Government Accountability Office: GAO-26-108118, DHS Annual Assessment: Dynamic Environment Affects Efforts to Manage Acquisition Risks, June 9, 2026. https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-26-108118
- State of Surveillance: Congress Gave Anduril the Keys to the Border, the Anduril border-surveillance monopoly vessel. /news/anduril-border-surveillance-monopoly-big-beautiful-bill-2026
- Government Accountability Office: GAO-25-107302, CBP Privacy Assessment for Surveillance Programs (cited in EFF July 20, 2026 article).
- State of Surveillance: Calexico Surveillance Tower Casts Shadow Over Homes and Baseball Field (referenced in EFF July 20, 2026 article).
- State of Surveillance: CBP Anduril Surveillance Tower San Clemente Residential Neighborhood, the California residential-tower vessel. /news/cbp-anduril-surveillance-tower-san-clemente-residential-neighborhood-2026
- EFF Deeplinks, Sophia Cope: The Fourth Circuit Says Border Agents Can Search Your Phone By Hand, No Suspicion Required, July 22, 2026. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/07/fourth-circuit-says-border-agents-can-search-your-phone-hand-no-suspicion-required