The US built a virtual wall of surveillance towers along its southern border. It promised to detect and apprehend border crossers and save lives. MIT Technology Review documented over a thousand deaths in areas watched by these towers. Some occurred under AI-powered towers designed to spot people automatically. The investigation reveals repeated failures of the system’s basic security promise. A roundtable examined these failures and the stories of those who died.

• over 1,000 deaths documented
• 25 years of virtual wall construction
• billions spent