Techonology

The surveillance tools that could power Trump’s immigration crackdown

Apps and ankle monitors that track asylum seekers in real time, wherever they go. The database was packed with personal information like fingerprints and faces. investigative tools that can break into locked phones and search through gigabytes of emails, text messages, and other files.

These are pieces of a technology arsenal available to President Trump as he aims to crack down on illegal immigration and carry out the largest deportation operation in US history. To do so, his administration could tap a stockpile of equipment produced by Democrats and Republicans that is almost unmatched in the Western world, according to a New York Times analysis.

A review of nearly 15,000 contracts shows that the two agencies β€” Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Citizens and Immigration Services β€” have spent $7.8 billion on immigration technologies from 263 companies since 2020.

The contracts, most of which were initiated under the Biden administration, included equipment that could prove family ties with rapid DNA testing if, say, an adult crossed the border with a minor. Migrants are related. (Families are often treated differently from individuals.) Other systems compare biometrics against criminal records, alert agents to address changes, follow cars with license plate readers, and track phones, hard Drive and analyze data from cars.

The contracts, which ranged in size, included phone services for Mundane Tech as well as advanced equipment from companies large and small. Palantir, a provider of data-analysis tools co-founded by billionaire Peter Thiel, received more than $1 billion over the past four years. Ventel, a provider of location data, had seven contracts between 2018 and 2022 with a total ice value of at least $330,000.

The Biden administration used many of these techniques for immigration enforcement, including investigations of drug trafficking, human trafficking, and international gang activity. How Mr Trump might implement the tool is unknown, especially as the whereabouts of many migrants are known and the government faces a shortage of officers and facilities to detain people.

But Mr Trump has already made clear that his immigration agenda is different from that of his predecessor. This week, he announced a barrage of executive actions to close the borders and expel migrants and asylum seekers.

β€œAll illegal entry will be stopped immediately and we will begin the process of deporting millions and millions of criminal aliens,” Mr Trump said at his inauguration on Monday.

Tech products are almost certainly in those plans. Thomas Homann, head of administration CZAR, has discussed the available tools at a meeting with technology companies.

“They will certainly use all the tools at their disposal, including new technology that is available,” said John Torres, former acting assistant secretary of ICE.

A White House spokesman declined to comment. ICE said in a statement that it “employs various forms of technology, and information to carry out its mission, and while protecting civil rights and liberties and freedoms in accordance with applicable laws.”

Eric Hysen, chief information officer at the Department of Homeland Security under President Biden, said ICE and other immigration agencies have enormous responsibilities. Many of the devices were designed to investigate drug smugglers and other criminals, not track migrants, he said, while other technology such as license plate readers could be used to reduce traffic at border crossings. .

The federal government has long had internal policies limiting how surveillance tools can be used, but those restrictions could be lifted by a new administration, Mr. Hysen said. “Those are things that can change, but they’re not easy to change,” he said.

The buildup of immigration tech goes back at least to the creation of the Department of Homeland Security after the attacks on September 11, 2001. Interest in the devices fueled a surge, which is expected to grow under Mr Trump. Leaders in Europe and elsewhere are also investing in the technologies as some adopt increasingly restrictive immigration policies.

Many companies are racing to meet demand, offering gear to strengthen borders and services to track immigrants once inside a country.

In the United States, beneficiaries include manufacturers of GPS tracking devices, digital forensics tools, and data brokers. Palantir and others won contracts with ICE to store and analyze the data. Thomson Reuters, LexisNexis, and credit rating companies provide access to databases of personal information that can help government agents search the homes, workplaces, and social connections of citizens and noncitizens alike.

Clearview AI, a facial recognition firm, had contracts worth nearly $9 million, according to government records. Cellebrite, an Israeli phone-cracking company, sold Ice about $54 million in investigative tools. The FBI used Cellebrite tools in 2016 to unlock the iPhone of a mass shooter in San Bernardino, California.

Investors have taken notice. The stock price of Geo Group, a private prison operator that sells surveillance technology to ICE, has more than doubled since Mr Trump won the election. Shares of Cellebrite have also nearly doubled over the past six months and Palantir shares have risen nearly 80 percent.

Tom Hogan, Cellebrite’s interim chief executive officer, said the company was “proud to help keep our homeland and borders secure with our technology.” Thomson Reuters said in a statement that its technology is used by agencies to support investigations of child exploitation, human trafficking, drug trafficking and international gang activity. LexisNexis, Clearview and Palantir did not respond to requests for comment.

In an investor call in November, GEO Group’s chief operating officer, Wayne Calabrese, said the company had expected “the Trump administration to take a much more expansive approach to monitoring the many millions of individuals” who were undergoing immigration proceedings, but Was not taken into custody. ,

“We have assured our capacity to rapidly increase the ice,” he said.

In a statement for this article, Geo Group, based in Boca Raton, Fla., said it looks forward to supporting the Trump administration as it implements its announced plans to secure the country’s borders and enforce its immigration laws. And moves quickly to achieve objectives. ,

One technology that could be used immediately in mass deportations could identify the exact location of immigrants, experts said.

About 180,000 undocumented immigrants wear an ankle bracelet with a GPS tracking device, or use an app called SmartLink, which requires them to log their whereabouts at least once a day. Created by a GEO Group subsidiary, the technology is used in a program called Alternatives to Detention. The program began in 2004 and was expanded during the Biden administration to survey people digitally instead of holding them in detention centers.

Location data collected through the program has been used in at least one ICE raid, according to a court document reviewed by the Times. In August 2019, during the first Trump administration, government agents followed the location of a woman who was being tracked as part of the program. This helped agents obtain a search warrant for a chicken processing plant in Mississippi, where a statewide raid resulted in the detention of approximately 680 immigrants with uncertain legal status.

Sejal Zota, legal director of Just Futures Law, a group that opposes government surveillance programs, said the Trump administration will need to rely on digital surveillance tools because the vast number of individuals without legal status are physically detained. It would be impossible to take in.

“While this administration wants to increase detention, and I believe it will find ways to do so, it will take time,” she said. “I think this program will continue to be important as a method for surveilling and controlling people.”

The Trump administration also has access to private databases with biometrics, addresses and criminal records. Agents can obtain records of utility bills for nearly three-quarters of Americans and driver’s licenses for a third of Americans, according to 2022. Study By Georgetown University.

These tools could potentially be used to track people high on ICE’s priority list, such as those with criminal histories or people who don’t show up for immigration court hearings. Investigators can use the database to find someone’s automobile information, then use license plate readers to pinpoint their location.

Earlier during the Trump administration, ICE could access driver’s license data through private companies in states like Oregon and Washington, even as states tried to cut off the federal government’s access to the information, according to a Georgetown study. of.

Mr. Torres, the former ICE official, said this information was vital for agents to find people.

“We know that people give false addresses,” he said. Agents can use “big data sharing to triangulate their location based on habits”.

This has raised privacy concerns. β€œPrivacy harms may seem theoretical on paper, but they are never theoretical for vulnerable people on the front lines,” said Justin Sherman, a distinguished fellow at Georgetown Law’s Center on Privacy and Technology.

During the Biden administration, Ice also purchased software from Babel Street, a tech company that gathers data from thousands of publicly available websites and other sources. Its services can assess people as potential security risks based on data. Babel Street did not respond to requests for comment. ICE has also paid a dozen companies for software that can be used to crack passcodes, surface deleted files and analyze email inboxes.

Some immigration experts have questioned how much the Trump administration might use this technology. Some tools are most relevant for targeted investigations, not mass deportations.

β€œWhat they are buying and what is actually useful may be completely different things,” Mr Maas said. Regardless, he said, tech companies are “going to make a lot of money.”

The New York Times analyzed government contracting data from usaspending.gov. Data shows spending from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Citizenship and Immigration Services from 2020 to present. The Times filtered the data to technology-related contracts, using recipient information and contract details. The Times looked at the money, not just what was promised, to calculate total spending and the total number of tech companies.

(Tagstotranslate) Illegal immigration (T) Computers and the Internet (T) Surveillance of citizens by the government (T) Politics and government of the United States (T) Immigration detention (T) Immigration and migration (T) Facial recognition software (T) Government CONTRACTS AND PROCUREMENTS OF (T) IDENTIFICATION TOOLS (T) DATA-MINING AND DATABASE MARKETING (T) MOBILE APPLICATIONS (T) CELEBRITE MOBILE SYNCHRONIZATION LTD (T) CLEARVIEW AI INC (T) Customs and Border Protection (US) (T) Department of Homeland Security.
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