Opinion: DHS Surveilling U.S. Citizens

Once relegated to the U.S.-Mexico border, surveillance technology is popping up in neighborhoods all over the country

Photo by Matthew Henry on Unsplash

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has excessive surveillance power and has built an arsenal of surveillance tools. However, DHS has recently been spending more than ever on monitoring tools that go beyond the basics. They are now using surveillance tools built around Artificial Intelligence (AI). Those tools have increasingly been utilized to monitor U.S. citizens under the guise of immigration enforcement and cynical claims of national security.

Once reserved for the borders, these technologies are quietly popping up in neighborhoods across the country. A recent analysis by the American Immigration Council highlights what is commonly referred to as “mission creep,” typically a gradual shift in military objectives. In this case, mission creep applies to AI and surveillance tools originally designed for immigration enforcement and now used to monitor U.S. citizens’ domestic activities.

One of the more recent harrowing incidents occurred when two kids were stopped by Border Patrol agents in the Chicago area and didn’t have ID. The agent then signaled to another agent and asked, “Can you do a facial?” The second agent then scans one of the boy’s faces using his phone, looks at his screen, and asks the teen to verify his name. The two are both U.S. citizens and simply riding their bikes in the neighborhood.

Currently, DHS employs Palantir’s Immigration OS, which can handle real-time monitoring and provide predictive analysis of people throughout the “immigration lifecycle.” Additionally, DHS is heavily invested in Clearviiew AI for facial recognition and iris-scanning technology. Clearview garnered widespread attention after scraping images from the Internet to create its database, used by law enforcement agencies across the globe. It has been described as a “digital dragnet” and a “perpetual police lineup” threatening privacy and anonymity.

DHS also employs the use of data from its Fusion Centers, where data is shared across local, state, and federal agencies, and the use of Mobile Fortify, an app that gives agents access to more than 200 million images at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Department of State, and DHS databases. DHS began using the faulty, error-prone app after abandoning its own privacy rules.

The shift from immigration enforcement to targeting everyone didn’t happen in a vacuum. While some of the powers granted to DHS upon its creation in 2003 have been used against U.S. citizens, the recent shift to using new technologies against U.S. citizens was swift. It shows just how powerful and unaccountable DHS and all of its child agencies are. One of the most notable impacts on citizens is the impact on the First Amendment. These systems are being deployed to monitor public protests, gatherings, and people, as we have seen in countless cases.

DHS has allowed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to use location-tracking systems to analyze the movements of groups using tools such as facial recognition, license-plate readers, and social media monitoring to identify and track protesters and activists without suspicion or judicial oversight.

“The line between border enforcement and everyday policing is already fading. Whether it disappears entirely depends on policymakers.” - Steven Hubbard, American Immigration Council

All of this is being done under the guise of dubious concerns of domestic terrorism, thus allowing other child agencies, like Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), to expand their reach into political activity. That means they’re using the traffic cams in your communities to monitor your neighbors for possible dissenting views, social media surveillance against activists, and tracking activities of U.S. citizens for nothing more than exercising their rights.

If you support this now, don’t think that it will not be used against you later. Blurring the line between federal and state law enforcement power endangers everyone and renders the states’ rights protections under the 10th Amendment useless. The whole country should be up in arms and letting the White House and lawmakers in Congress know that this is unacceptable.

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I’m an independent journalist digging deeper into the stories you see or don’t see on the news. Find my work at Unicorn Riot, The Antagonist Magazine, Latino Rebels, Orinoco Tribune, and more. I’m also on TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, and Threads. To support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber or making a donation via Venmo, PayPal, or Cash App.