The mechanism: Congress didn't just fund more agents at the border — it funded the sensors and software that watch it. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), signed into law and now flowing through DHS appropriations, earmarks roughly $2.6–2.77 billion specifically for Autonomous Surveillance Towers, Integrated Fixed Towers, and mobile surveillance capability, part of a broader $3.45 billion CBP border-tech line inside a $170 billion multiyear DHS package running through FY2029. That money splits cleanly into two budget categories procurement officers actually write checks against: the physical layer (cameras, radar, drones, dock hardware) and the analytics layer (fusing feeds, running biometric matches, generating case files). Two very different public companies own those categories.