NewsThoughts: Border Walls and Robo Cops
Good morning, afternoon, or whenever it is that you read this.
In far West Texas, the threat of land seizures for a border wall has families on edge
I went to Big Bend National Park back in March of this year and much had changed in the intervening nine or so years since I had last visited. However, two major things remained the same: first, Big Bend is vast, lonely, and heavily underdeveloped. Second is that this land is extremely vulnerable and requires protection. The biggest change I noticed, however, was not the increased tourism economy in Terlingua, but the presence of an organization called No Big Bend Wall
According to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Big Bend Region has logged nearly the lowest amount of border encounters in 2026.
Over the past few months, the federal government has been contracting with construction companies, waiving environmental restrictions, and reaching out to property owners along this stretch of the Rio Grande which all points toward a desire to act on previous threats to build a wall through Big Bend. An attempt to ban a wall from being erected was floated in Congress and killed by - you guessed it - Republicans.
A border wall being built would be a disaster for the environment. That vast, empty expanse? Gone. Unbroken ecosystem? Gone. And let’s not forget the community personally invested in the land, some of whom have been living in the region for generations.
Of course, let’s be honest about why these border walls are even being built in the first place. It’s not about security, otherwise we wouldn’t be discussing the Big Bend Sector. Racism against Mexico plays a part of it I’m sure, as it often is in US Policy, but that's mostly to appeal to coveted white nationalist vote.
I think is the most influential reason is also the most banal: money. Companies donate to the Trump campaign and reap the rewards in lucrative government contracts. For example, the US government made Elon Musk the first trillionaire.
Government patronage is nothing new and, in fact, baked into the roots of the United States. But it’s so fucking obvious, and that more people don’t care blows my mind.
The Trump administration is, as we speak, attempting to cram the deeply controversial Big Bend Wall down the throats of Texans. If you are located in the USA, please consider checking out No Big Bend Wall to see how you could help.
Ohio Gives Up On Robot Cop After 10 Months of Failing to Arrest A Single Person
Robocops are here.
The story in Ohio is pretty funny - a 68k boondoggle that yielded a roomba with a badge that patrolled a parking garage and did nothing.
That being said, there are real, legitimate robotics being employed in law enforcement settings. These robots aren’t replacing police officers (yet) but play a role in surveillance and combat, could roll out with AI facial recognition technology. AI facial recognition is still inaccurate, especially with people of color.
You also have to consider how this technology could be used broadly against the population. Technology promoted to fight crime or terrorism could easily be used by bad actors to broadly target American citizens who criticize the government.
But, all of this makes me appreciate DubBot (the affectionate nickname of Dublin, Ohio robot) even more. DubBot may not have done anything to justify its existence, but it did become a punchline for bloated policing budgets.
In wasting a new car’s worth of money, DubCop has made a great point that we need to more sufficiently explore new technology, rather than rush for deploying it. Tech companies may have fucked an entire generation of public education in the name of profit. Do we really want to rush for it to be policing the streets, or firing missiles before the independent science has measured the social cost?
I suppose it doesn’t matter if you’re a robber baron trying to make a profit.
Thanks for reading, if you made it this far.