A congressional representative just proposed killing America’s border tower program

Illinois Democratic Representative Delia Ramirez has unveiled legislation to terminate the US southern border surveillance tower program. This comes in the wake of an MIT Technology Review investigation, "Dying on Camera," which revealed that nearly one in four deaths along the border from 2015 to early 2026 occurred within the towers' range.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) does not track these deaths or the towers' success or failure. Ramirez, who chairs the Homeland Security Committee, cited the MIT Technology Review's report stating that "1,100 people have died within range of a billion-dollar surveillance tower system between 2015 and 2026." The proposed legislation, the Reimagining Safety Act, was developed in collaboration with community and local representatives, and advocacy groups Just Futures Law and Mijente, which focus on immigrant rights and Latinx political power.

The bill aims to be part of a broader plan to replace DHS with a new Department of Community Safety, moving various functions to existing agencies. While public support for abolishing ICE has grown following the second Trump administration's enforcement operations, Ramirez insists that ending ICE is not sufficient. She emphasized the need to dismantle DHS entirely and provide a roadmap for its dismantling, stating that the bill will face significant challenges in Congress, where some Democrats favor reform over dismantling the organization.