SAN DIEGO (AP) — The Trump administration has quietly added surveillance cameras at the U.S.-Mexico border in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The cameras and deployment of 540 more troops come despite a nine-month decline in apprehensions that indicate fewer people are crossing illegally.
The Associated Press obtained internal military documents saying the Department of Defense personnel started manning 60 more mobile surveillance cameras this month in response to the COVID-19 outbreak at the request of the Department of Homeland Security.
A Customs and Border Protection spokesman says the reason for the additional cameras was rising coronavirus cases in Mexico. Mexico has a fraction of the number of infections that have been confirmed in the U.S.