#ICE amps up its #surveillance powers,
targeting #immigrants & the nonexistent group #antifa
Iris scanners, facial-recognition apps, phone-hacking software & cellphone location data are among the agency’s recent technological purchases.
#Trump #law #privacy #immigration #tech #SurveillanceState #MilitaryState #fascism #tyranny #NoKings
#ICE has been rapidly building out its #surveillance capabilities in recent weeks, signing a string of contracts for technologies to identify individuals by their irises or facial features & to monitor their cellphone activity, social media posts & physical movements, according to a review of federal spending disclosures.
#Trump #law #privacy #immigration #tech #SurveillanceState #MilitaryState #fascism #tyranny #NoKings
The blitz of #surveillance purchases is motivated in large part by ICE’s intensive, nationwide campaign to find & deport undocumented #immigrants. But documents show that some of the #technology may also be used to target what the admin regards as anti-ICE extremist groups. Late last month, #Trump declared “#Antifa” a domestic #terrorist organization in the wake of a few violent clashes & a Dallas shooting at an #ICE facility.
#law #privacy #immigration #MilitaryState #fascism #tyranny #NoKings
#Trump ordered all federal agencies to devote resources to investigating what he defined as “a militarist, anarchist enterprise that explicitly calls for the overthrow of the United States Government, law enforcement authorities, & our system of law.”
Shortly after Trump’s EO, #ICE’s acting director, Todd Lyons, told Glenn Beck in an interview that the agency will deploy some of its elite investigative officers to probe anti-ICE protester networks.
“We have some of the best special agents, criminal investigators,” Lyons said on Beck’s podcast. “We are going to track the money. We are going to track these ringleaders.”
Lyons said the investigations will focus on “ringleaders” & “professional agitators” who he said are out to turn protests into violent confrontations.
#Trump #law #privacy #immigration #tech #SurveillanceState #MilitaryState #fascism #tyranny #NoKings
But Democratic lawmakers, #CivilRights watchdogs & fmr officials have expressed concern that #ICE now has a green light not only to monitor immigrant communities, but also to carry out broad #surveillance of Americans exercising their #FirstAmendment right to oppose government action.
#Trump #law #privacy #immigration #tech #SurveillanceState #MilitaryState #fascism #tyranny #NoKings
Technologies purchased by #ICE in recent weeks include an iris-scanning app that agents plan to use in the field, spyware that can hack into smartphones remotely & cellphone location software that can enable the tracking of a phone’s movements without a court #warrant.
“The acquisition & deployment of this technology in this environment is going to raise substantial concerns,” said John Sandweg, who was an acting director of ICE under the Obama admin.
In one contract that #ICE signed last month for #Clearview #AI facial recognition software, the agency said in a filing that it would be used to investigate “assaults against law enforcement officers.” Other federal contracts show ICE has been expanding its fleet of small, remote-controlled drones, which it has said it is using to film #protesters.
#Trump #law #privacy #immigration #tech #SurveillanceState #MilitaryState #fascism #tyranny #NoKings
On Oct 2, #ICE also informed prospective vendors that it planned to set up a new social media monitoring hub to trawl platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp & TikTok to collect info on targets. The document identifies undocumented immigrants who have committed serious crimes as the primary focus but also deems domestic terrorism a top priority & says the contractor must be “flexible [about] shifting priorities.”
#Trump #law #privacy #immigration #tech #SurveillanceState #MilitaryState #NoKings
#ICE’s contracted obligations in September tallied up to $1.4 billion, its highest monthly sum in at least 18 years, according to USASpending.gov. The upsurge in awards coincides with the agency’s access to more than $170 billion in funding that #Congress allocated for border security & #immigration enforcement in its July spending bill.
#Trump #law #privacy #tech #SurveillanceState #MilitaryState #fascism #tyranny #NoKings
Many of those funds reflect long-term contracts that will be paid out over time in the future. Hundreds of millions of dollars are earmarked for technology products, according to a review of the contracts by The Washington Post, with major spending also on #detention centers, air transport and guns.
#Trump #law #privacy #immigration #tech #SurveillanceState #MilitaryState #fascism #tyranny #NoKings
A number of #ICE’s #surveillance orders this year are explicitly for #immigration enforcement, such as a $30 million contract to #Palantir to build #ImmigrationOS, a platform for granularly tracking undocumented immigrants’ movements and any self-deportations. But #US officials have also begun to say that their efforts may serve the crackdown on #antifa as well.
#Trump #law #privacy #immigration #tech #SurveillanceState #MilitaryState #fascism #tyranny #NoKings
#ICE posted drone footage of #protesters & ICE officers clashing in #Chicago on its #Facebook page on Oct 3.
The pinned post on ICE’s official Facebook page is a warning to the agency’s critics that they will “Face the Consequences” of long prison sentences if they assault or impede officers, cyberstalk, dox or make threats online.
#Trump #law #privacy #immigration #tech #SurveillanceState #MilitaryState #fascism #tyranny #RightToProtest #FirstAmendment #NoKings
#ICE purchased #spyware in recent weeks that enables it to remotely hack into #smartphones & extract #data, even if phones are locked or communication is encrypted. One of them, developed by #Paragon, has drawn considerable concern from #CivilRights groups due to its use by other govts to monitor #dissidents & #journalists. ICE’s initial $2M contract for the spyware was suspended by #Biden due to those ethical concerns, but the contract was reactivated Aug 29.
3 Democratic lawmakers wrote a letter to #DHS Secy #KristiNoem on Oct 6 expressing concern over reports of #ICE’s contract with #Paragon for #Graphite #spyware. “Graphite can gain unauthorized access into mobile phones without the owner’s knowledge or #consent, allowing access to encrypted applications, the phone’s location data, as well as messages & photographs saved to the phone,” Reps. Summer Lee (PA), Shontel Brown (OH) & Yassamin Ansari (AZ) wrote.
#Paragon lists no contacts; requests for comment to Redlattice, a related Virginia-based company, drew no response.
Maria Villegas Bravo, Electronic #Privacy Information Center counsel, said #ICE’s use of Paragon #spyware raised questions of whether it infringed on the #4thAmendment against unreasonable search & seizure, as well as the #FirstAmendment’s protection of #FreeSpeech & the rights to #assembly & #petition.
#Trump #law #immigration #tech #SurveillanceState #fascism #NoKings
…#ICE also reported a $2 million contract for #Penlink’s #Tangles & #Weblocs data systems on Sept. 25, which combine #socialmedia & #darkweb data to build detailed portraits of individuals. Weblocs allows clients to track the mobile phone location data of targeted individuals, information that government officials would otherwise need a #warrant to obtain. Penlink did not respond to a request for comment.
#Trump #law #4thAmendment #privacy #immigration #tech #SurveillanceState #fascism #NoKings
In another project, #ICE has disclosed in recent days its potential plans to set up a #socialmedia monitoring team of 16 analysts who would sift through information from social media platforms & other databases to generate leads to locate *targeted individuals*. An Oct 2 “request for information,” …listed Facebook, X, TikTok, LinkedIn, Reddit, WhatsApp, YouTube, Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram, Flickr, Myspace & Google+ as some of the platforms that the team would scour…
The target’s family, friends & co-workers could also be probed.
While the overview says undocumented #immigrants would be the main target for the #socialmedia team, the draft guidelines designate “domestic or international terrorism,” which under Trump’s executive order includes #antifa, as being among the most urgent category of cases.
#Trump #law #4thAmendment #FirstAmendment #privacy #immigration #tech #SurveillanceState #infosec #MilitaryState #fascism #tyranny #RightToProtest #NoKings
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