Border Monitoring and Surveillance

The Border Monitoring and Surveillance category focuses on the so-called “smart” or “virtual” border wall, i.e. the monitoring and surveillance apparatus that can replace physical barriers in preventing people from crossing the border. This includes companies that provide the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) with:

  • Border patrol aircraft and ground vehicles, both manned and unmanned, including planes, drones, blimps, all-terrain vehicles, and motorcycles.
  • Border surveillance towers, both fixed and mobile, and the myriad cameras, imaging systems, and other sensors installed on them.
  • Surveillance equipment installed at border crossings, such as vehicle and license plate readers, as well as devices collecting people’s biometrics including fingerprints, facial images, DNA, etc.
  • Electronic databases and systems that store and analyze these data, as well as the servers that host them.

For more information on this industry, see here.

The list of companies involved in this sector
Select private companies are listed below publicly-traded companies.
(!) symbol means this company is on our divestment list
Publicly-Traded Companies
Ireland

An Irish management, consulting, and outsourcing firm that provides technical and planning support to US Customs and Border Protection (CBP)

A military contractor that makes small drones used to surveil the US-Mexico border.

A Dutch multinational military and aerospace company whose helicopters are used to monitor the US-Mexico border.

One of the world’s largest IT companies. Its subsidiary Google provides software and cloud services to US immigration authorities as well as the Israeli government and military and discriminates against Palestinians.

USA

A US telecommunications company that provides communications services to US immigration authorities

USA

A software company that provides US immigration authorities with software that collects and manages biometric data.

A US manufacturer of tasers, body and car cameras, drones, and accompanying software that provides these products to US immigration authorities, prisons, and law enforcement agencies.

A US-based producer of high-end computing and industrial products that provides Mobile Video Surveillance Systems (MVSS) for monitoring the US-Mexico border.

A government contractor that provides computer and IT services to US immigration authorities and other federal agencies

The owner of Safariland and Defense Technology, the largest US manufacturer of tear gas weapons for law enforcement. Its chemical and other crowd-control weapons are used by US border patrol, prison authorities, and police departments across the US and around the world against civilian protesters.

An Israeli digital intelligence firm that supplies law enforcement agencies, prison authorities, border security agencies, and repressive regimes around the world with hacking technologies.

A US-based producer of surveillance tools that provides video management systems for monitoring prisons, jails, and the US-Mexico border.

A manufacturer of firearms and ammunition for military, law enforcement, and commercial markets in the U.S., Israel, and around the world.

A US-based manufacturer of agricultural and construction machinery, which provides all-terrain vehicles to US Border Patrol

Israel's largest weapons manufacturer. Its weapons are routinely used in war crimes against Palestinian civilians and its surveillance systems are used in Palestine and along the U.S.–Mexico border.

A US-based vehicle manufacturer that provides commercial and specialized vehicles to US law enforcement and immigration authorities and to Israeli occupation authorities

The world's fifth–largest military company. It manufactures weapons used by the Israeli military against Palestinian civilians and surveillance technology which is used to monitor the U.S.-Mexico border and surveil immigrant communities.

A US-based vehicle manufacturer that provides commercial and specialized vehicles to law enforcement and immigration authorities. Its trucks are also used by the Israeli military and border police to patrol the Gaza wall and for other military occupation-related purposes.

A Japanese vehicle manufacturer, which provides US Border Patrol with all-terrain vehicles.

One of the world's largest IT companies. A major contractor for U.S. immigration authorities. Runs the discriminatory Israeli population registry and provides technologies to the Israeli military.

A US military IT contractor that provides imaging technologies and biometric systems to US immigration authorities for border monitoring and surveillance.

The world's largest military company. It manufactures multiple weapon systems that are routinely used in war crimes against Palestinian civilians and reconnaissance aircraft that are used to monitor the US–Mexico border.

A Swedish data extraction firm that provides digital forensics tools to law enforcement and immigration authorities

A US-based communications and surveillance company. Leading supplier of license plate recognition software. Sells surveillance products for use at US prisons, at the US-Mexico Border, and by US police agencies. Its equipment is installed in illegal settlements and in the separation wall in the West Bank and is used by the Israeli military, police, and prison service.

The world's fourth-largest military company. It manufactures multiple weapon systems used by the Israeli military against Palestinian civilians, and was instrumental in developing ICE's deportation machine.

A US manufacturer of security and inspection systems. It provides these systems to US border checkpoints and to Israeli military checkpoints in the occupied Palestinian territory.

USA

A U.S. military and government contractor that provides maintenance to the aircraft fleet used to monitor the US borders and beyond

United States

A US vehicle manufacturer that provides all-terrain vehicles, utility task vehicles, and snowmobiles to immigration authorities.

The world's second-largest military company, formerly known as Raytheon Technologies. It makes missiles, bombs, components for fighter jets, and other weapon systems used by the Israeli military against Palestinian civilians. Its surveillance technology is also used to monitor the U.S.–Mexico border.

A US cloud computing and AI company whose systems power the US Unified Immigration Portal

A British engineering company that provides X-ray and surveillance technologies to US immigration authorities to monitor borders.

A US engineering and IT government contractor. Its subsidiary FLIR Systems provides mobile surveillance systems to monitor the US-Mexico border.

A US-based military contractor known for its Bell, Beechcraft, Cessna, and Hawker aircraft brands, some of which are used to monitor the US-Mexico border and by the Israeli Air Force.

A US-based global investment firm. Its subsidiary Mantech is a military contractor that provides IT and surveillance services to US immigration authorities.

A US pharmaceutical and biotech company that provides equipment for mass DNA testing of people detained by US immigration authorities and Rapid DNA testing of migrant families at the US-Mexico border

A Japanese vehicle manufacturer that provides all-terrain vehicles and watercraft to US Border Patrol.

Private Companies
Massachusetts

Since 2020, Anduril has provided CBP with Autonomous Surveillance Towers (AST) that use artificial intelligence and Google technologies to monitor the US-Mexico border.

Berla, in collaboration with MSAB, makes vehicle forensics kits that CBP uses to extract personal information from cars' infotainment and navigation systems. The system can extract contact lists, messages, pictures, and recent destinations from any synchronized mobile devices.

A biometrics company that has conducted DNA analysis and testing of immigrants since 2014. Since 2019, Bode has provided CBP and ICE with Rapid DNA testing services using Thermo Fisher's RapidHIT ID system.

New York

A surveillance company that mines facial images from websites including social media and uses facial recognition software to create databases for law enforcement and other government agencies. Clearview has sold a subscription to its database to CBP since 2020.

Since 2018, Davenport Aviation has partnered with Airbus to provide CBP with "light enforcement helicopters" for patrolling US borders.

One of the world's largest consulting firms, with multiple large contracts with ICE and CBP, including for optimizing their immigrant detention capabilities and for developing the Unified Immigration Portal (UIP), using Salesforce technology, to facilitate information sharing across DHS agencies.

California

CBP's main contractor for drones to monitor the US-Mexico border. General Atomics has provided at least 10 MQ-9 Predator B drones since 2005, and continues providing "operational and maintenance" at least until 2022.

Georgia

Owned by private equity firm Peak Equity Partners, Grayshift provides its GrayKey system to ICE and CBP for extracting data from cell phones. In 2019, Grayshift partnered with Magnet Forensics to make GrayKey available to more law enforcement.

Since 2014, JDL Digital Systems has provided support and equipment for the Video Evidence Collection and Distribution System (VECADS) used by ICE and CBP. The company develops standalone security cameras as well as video recording and time management equipment for aircraft, drones, and vehicles.

Nebraska

A communications data analysis company that mines data including phone usage, social media, and internet communications to track people in real time. These data, which Pen-Link has provided to ICE and CBP since at least 2008, is integrated into the Palantir-designed Investigative Case Management (ICM) system.

Virginia

Owned by private equity firm Veritas Capital, Peraton took over Northrop Grumman's contract for DHS' HART biometric database and L3Harris contract for CBP's Tethered Aerostat Radar System (blimps) on the US-Mexico border.

Virginia

Formerly Geospark Analytics, Seerist has provided CBP with its Hyperion software since 2020; the software uses artificial intelligence to automate "risk and threat intelligence gathering and analysis."

Since 2009, Sierra Nevada has modified Textron aircraft into CBP's Multi-Role Enforcement Aircraft for monitoring US borders.

A forensics and biometrics company that, since 2019, consults DHS on optimizing its analysis of rapid DNA tests taken from immigrants at the US-Mexico border.

Virginia

Since 2019, Venntel has provided ICE and CBP with its database of people's locations based on mining smartphone app data.

This page was last updated on
25 October 2021