Illegal crossings at the southern border are the highest ever recorded. Even President Biden is planning to build a wall. But what if we could solve the problem for less than a billion dollars?
That just might be possible by using a new technology called Integrated Fixed Towers from Elbit Systems.
A New Way to Secure the Border
These towers are loaded with cameras and sensors. They have night vision, thermal sensors, and even radar.
Each tower can see up to 7.5 miles. And they only cost $2.6 million a piece.
In a scenario that seems to be getting worse by the minute, surveillance towers are a fast solution. The mobile version, mounted on a truck, can be deployed in under 4 minutes.
A New Way to Secure the Border
These towers are loaded with cameras and sensors. They have night vision, thermal sensors, and even radar.
Each tower can see up to 7.5 miles. And they only cost $2.6 million a piece.
In a scenario that seems to be getting worse by the minute, surveillance towers are a fast solution. The mobile version, mounted on a truck, can be deployed in under 4 minutes.
Towers vs. The Wall
Surveillance towers could protect the border much more quickly and cheaply than a wall.
Nearly seven years since President Trump was inaugurated, just a few hundred miles of the wall have been built. The cost: $20 million a mile.
If we finished the wall, that cost would balloon to around $40 billion and could take years. But a network of surveillance towers would cost just $670 million and could be up and running much faster.
Surveillance towers aren't just quick and cheap — they provide valuable information a wall does not. A wall won't tell you who is where, or give you an idea of whether they're drug traffickers or just desperate refugees.
With ropes and ladders, migrants can easily breach a wall. But there's no good way to evade the combination of night vision, thermal sensors, and radar.
What Kind of Border Do We Want?
A border bristling with cameras trying to keep the poor and desperate out of our obscenely rich country concerns me. But having security doesn't mean we can't let people in.
I favor letting in any law abiding person willing to work.
We have a huge labor shortage and low fertility rate.
We need more people — and here they are, at the perfect time.
But we also need to keep criminals and drug traffickers out. And if we have no idea who's crossing our border, we can't do that.
Wrap-Up
We should put surveillance towers on the entire southern border tomorrow. We can do that for the cost of just 35 miles of wall.
At that price, we'd be fools not to try it.
Even if a wall is better, surveillance towers could be a good stopgap until the wall is finished.
We can be compassionate and secure at the same time. And we may be able to do it faster, cheaper and better than we ever thought possible.
Should we use surveillance towers? Why or why not?
Leave a comment and let us know!
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