Texas' border with Mexico is really long: about 1,200 miles. That's farther than the distance between Houston and Chicago. And a lot of Texans don't like anything or anyone crossing without their permission.

But even recent surges of troops and money, and hundreds of miles of barbed wire-laden wall, have been unable to secure the wide border region from the South Texas scrubland to the Chihuahua desert. So the state's Department of Public Safety has gone high tech to keep drugs and illegal immigrants out.

Their efforts are bearing fruit. In particular, a network of more than a thousand motion-activated wildlife cameras helped border guards make almost 30,000 apprehensions and seize 88,400 pounds of drugs in 2014.

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"This innovative use of technology has proven to be a force multiplier in detecting the smuggling attempts along the border, which is critical to interdicting criminal activity occurring between the ports of entry," said DPS director Steve McCraw in a press release.

The system has been so successful that the state legislature authorized funding for 4,000 more cameras. That comes after the summer 2014 "border surge," ordered by then-governor Rick Perry to block a deluge of immigrants and refugees, failed to take a dent out of drug trafficking through the state or to raise the prices of illegal drugs for Texas consumers, VICE News reports.

But the cameras could be a glimmer of hope for lawmakers fearful of what could come into the state from abroad. Pictures released by the DPS show immigrants making the treacherous trek through mostly vacant scrubland, and also drug smuggling, with men carrying large blocks of compressed marijuana on their backs or in truck beds.

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When the cameras detect motion, an automatic alert is sent to a collaboration of agencies, including the DPS and U.S. Border Patrol, for verification. If on-screen activity seems illegal, Border Patrol agents are dispatched to the area.

Since the program's inception in 2012, border cameras have yielded more than 56,000 apprehensions and seizure of more than 112 tons of drugs.

Check out our slideshow to see some images captured by border surveillance systems.