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Former Facebook Near-Billionaire Palmer Luckey Creating Immigrant ‘Monitor’

Pitched “virtual border wall” to White House.

Palmer Luckey, the founder of the Facebook-owned Oculus who The Daily Beast revealed funded pro-Trump memes in October, is now developing a technology to create a “virtual border wall” that will use “technology found in self-driving cars” to spot border-crossers, The New York Times reported. Luckey departed Oculus in March, seven months after The Daily Beast discovered his $10,000 donation to NimbleAmerica, an organization created alongside moderators of the alt-right subreddit r/the_donald. Luckey began working on his border wall project “soon after” he was widely condemned for his donation. The project is also being funded by Facebook board member Peter Thiel. According to sources who spoke to the Times, the company will use “sensors and cameras to monitor borders for illegal crossings” or other perimeter activities, like at “military bases and stadium events.” Luckey and right-wing agitator Charles C. Johnson had met with Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke in April, as first reported by Gizmodo.