The Vermont ACLU is opposing a federal proposal to line the Canada border with several video-surveillance towers.
“These surveillance towers would fly in the face of those civil liberties that Vermonters hold so dear and would accelerate the militarization of our region,” James Lyall, the group’s executive director, said Thursday.
The state branch of the civil liberties organization issued a statement last week about the plan from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which calls for eight camera sites across the towns of Derby, Franklin, Highgate, Richford and Troy — along with two sites in New York.
Under the agency’s preferred plan, towers equipped with video cameras would be installed in Derby, Franklin, Richford and Troy. Antennas bearing the equipment would be added to existing buildings in the village of Derby Line and in Highgate.
The highest proposed tower, in New York, would reach 180 feet. Towers in Vermont would reach a maximum of 120 feet, according to the plan.
Border officials believe the cameras, part of a program used by federal agents since 1996, would let the agency watch over remote areas without sending Border Patrol agents into the field.
“Without the 24/7 surveillance capability, there is the probability that cross-border violations will increase,” the agency said in a draft document.
Some local leaders questioned whether the camera systems would impose on people’s privacy. Lyall, with the ACLU, believes that is certain.
He said he has worked in border communities with towers like those proposed for Vermont. The towers came with increased Border Patrol intrusion, he said, that rendered those places “unrecognizable.”
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.
Lyall also questioned the impetus for the northern border proposal. The federal agency said in documents that people have been smuggling goods across the Vermont border along remote trails and roads with “increasing frequency.”
But “all they’re selling is fear,” Lyall said of federal officials.
The Vermont ACLU plans to file public comments on the draft environmental assessment for the project. The public comment period ends March 15.
