Investigation Launched Into Deaths at the US Border's 'Virtual Wall'

Migrant Jose Morales Bernal was found dead in an area watched by three AI surveillance towers on the US border. MIT Technology Review published its findings on the connection between the so-called 'virtual wall' and migrant deaths on the 21st.

Morales crossed the border in April 2024, one day before his 32nd birthday. He was never apprehended by the Border Patrol, and the first to discover him was not an agent but a worker at a nearby landfill. An autopsy determined the cause of death to be environmental exposure.

In a 15-month investigation, MIT Technology Review cross-referred data on roughly 4,000 locations where human remains were found near the border with information on about 600 surveillance towers. Based on this, a map of deaths near surveillance towers was created for the first time. The US government is reportedly planning to spend an additional $1 billion to triple the size of the virtual wall, despite the deaths.

The investigation is part of 'Dying on Camera,' an MIT Technology Review series tracing how border surveillance technology operates and its relationship to deaths along the border.