Donald Trump has promised to deport one million people a year; the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is using all available resources, including Artificial Intelligence (AI), to fulfill this mandate.
Migrants, however, have not sat idly by and are also turning to the most advanced technology to build tools to protect their rights and resist the onslaught.
Numerous software developers have taken on the task of creating applications to strengthen resistance, such as ICEspy, ICElist, Stop ICE, and ICEblock.
Through these devices, they identify hooded individuals participating in raids, collect, and share information that can be legally used against members of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) who violate the law.
The task of the Donald Trump administration alone is enormous: while it has managed to double the number of daily arrests from 660 to 1,200, to achieve its goal it needs to establish an average of 3,000 events per day, which includes operating on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents—or those who claim to be, because they act hooded and refuse to identify themselves—have launched massive raids and detain people at random; such methods produce a high incidence of errors, which threaten to cause a financial drain due to lawsuits for abuses.
An example of this is the case of Mahmud Khalil, a regular resident of Palestinian origin who was locked up for three months in a detention center. Undeterred, she filed a lawsuit demanding $20 million in compensation.
ICE Uses Mobile Phones and Drones to Identify Migrants
To sharpen its aim, ICE has repurposed the facial recognition technology used at border checkpoints, turning it into a new mobile phone app that, by simply pointing a camera, can identify migrants, protesters, and activists on the streets of any city.
These devices allow agents to circumvent legal restrictions that prevent them from demanding identification without a clear reason.
Called Mobile Fortify, the app “offers users the ability to verify biometric identity in real time using contactless fingerprints and facial images captured by the camera of an ICE-issued cell phone, without the need for a secondary collection device,” states an email sent to all Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) personnel, which was obtained by the technology-focused website 404 Media.
For the identification and prosecution of people who have After participating in the “immigration protests,” as DHS calls the demonstrations against the raids, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) confirmed the use of Predator drones, which the military touts as “a pioneering force in modern warfare.”
They note that they are capable “of performing reconnaissance, combat, and support functions in the toughest battles.”
This was considered by the press as something that “further breaks the seal on federal involvement in civil matters typically handled by state or local authorities.”
For the same purpose, police departments and precincts in various states across the country have repeatedly hacked into California’s artificial intelligence-powered automatic license plate reading cameras (manufactured by the company Flock) on behalf of ICE.
This could be illegal unless California law enforcement agencies themselves have agreed to allow it, which would make them jointly responsible for undermining the perception of California as a sanctuary state, notes 404 Media, which discovered this procedure through requests. Transparency.
Another method used by immigration agencies to invade personal data was sold to CBP by a data broker owned by the largest US airlines, allowing it to access passengers’ names, itineraries, and financial details.
This is in addition to the social media surveillance that the Department of Homeland Security has conducted for years using a variety of technological tools, now reinforced by a tool developed by ShadowDragon, a contractor for ICE and many other government agencies.
This tool allows analysts to simultaneously extract public data about a target person from a wide range of websites, social media platforms, apps, and services.
Including Bluesky, OnlyFans, and several Meta platforms. This allows for tracking a person’s activity, movements, and relationships.
