Arivaca, AZ
31°29'04.8"N 111°22'38.4"W
Integrated Fixed Tower (IFT)
This is the first surveillance tower we visited and photographed for this project, an Integrated Fixed Tower (IFT) manufactured by a US subsidiary of Elbit Systems, the Israeli military technology contractor. It is located southeast of Arivaca in a beautiful region of what is now southern Arizona.
TCA-TUS-041
Our own work to learn about and document America's border security infrastructure began when we met and realized we had similar questions about the towers we had encountered in southern Arizona. Colter, who grew up in Tucson, has been visiting the area around Arivaca with his father since he was a child, so we started there. Looking at this landscape, free for a moment from the geopolitical maps through which we so often see the world around us, it is striking how invisible the border is… if it weren't for the steel and concrete that has been assembled in the walls. and towers that cross the prairie. And as we look up at this tower, noting the IFT technology tailored to the tower hardware of the now-defunct SBInet program, we begin to see something that has become clearer as our work has expanded: infrastructure like this watchtower does not simply delineate or fortify the border, it is the border.
Below: 2024 - IFT (after installation)
Below: 2003 (Before installation, Ruby road not yet paved)
