Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
ICE buys location info from data brokers to evade warrant requirements. It slurps data from utility companies to locate immigrants who need electricity, heat, and internet connections but would rather not be hassled for trying to exist and earn a living by providing this same information directly to the US government.
The operative theory appears to be that immigrants here illegally aren’t protected by the US Constitution. But that’s simply not true. Rights are extended to people living in our borders, whether or not they’re US citizens. However, none of that is going to matter if Trump succeeds in deploying his mass deportation plans — ones that are long on rhetoric and short on actual planning at the moment.
Rest assured, the round-ups will outpace the planning following Trump’s re-ascension. ICE tends to be very proactive when it feels the person in the Oval Office has its back. “Going forward” means “starting now,” as this New Yorker article written by Ronan Farrow points out. Be sure you don’t overlook what’s being said in the last sentence of the article’s opening paragraph.
Nice. So, we’re doing business with a company that will only allow the US government to target US citizens. While it’s great that it’s preventing outside countries from doing this (which is a claim I’m not inclined to believe), it’s definitely shitty that it’s offering a bespoke version to the DHS and ICE for the express purpose of plug-and-play domestic surveillance.
Then there’s the first sentence of the paragraph, which indicates this was in motion two months ahead of the election, which suggests two equally disturbing things. Either the outgoing administration was fine with expanded domestic surveillance or DHS felt it should get the ball rolling because the victor of the 2024 election was likely to be supportive of expanded domestic surveillance. Perhaps the purchasing department was just running a Trump re-election parlay. Or maybe the DHS felt pretty confident Kamala Harris wouldn’t object to mass surveillance, even while she argued against mass deportations. Not great!
The DHS may have handled the macro, but ICE jumped on the micro as soon as it became clear who was headed to the Oval Office in January.
More surveillance and a shit-ton of more money for the private companies handling federal prisoners and federal detainees, some of which have already expressed their pleasure over this year’s presidential election during earnings calls.
As Farrow’s article points out, the federal government has “struggled” both in terms of oversight and accountability when it comes to expanded surveillance powers and surveillance tech rollouts. One could credibly argue you can’t call a terminal lack of interest in oversight and accountability a “struggle.” But no one can argue this turn of events — one that aligns government agencies’ thirst for expanded power with technical advances that make this sort of thing cheaper and easier than it’s ever been — is going to make America great again. It’s just going to make America something it’s really never been: you know, East Germany, the USSR, China, etc.
And we’re all going to pay the price, and not just in terms of the additional taxes that will be needed to gird the infrastructional loins of Trump’s mass deportation plans. If this moves forward, America will be the worst it’s ever been — a nation hollowed out deliberately by bigots who think the nation can only be great if nearly half of its population lives in fear of being forcibly ejected. And while that happens, tech companies that aid and abet this atrocity will make billions off the misery of millions.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Frosty Piss on Sunday December 01, @11:18PM (18 children)
And you all think this means anything at all to Orange Jesus and his MAGA Zombie sycophant Orangeshirts? You think this is "flamebait", a "troll"? It's reality, get used to it.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 02, @12:04AM (7 children)
Sadly, it doesn't mean anything to any politicians, not just those who overtly espouse fascism. Those who pursue power desire to wield it, and none of them care much about the interests of normal people by the time they've climbed the ladder to prominence.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 02, @12:27AM (2 children)
Also, sadly, whoever you elect, you always get a politician.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 02, @05:12PM
That being because the act of standing for election makes you a politician. I'd point out that whoever you *don't* elect (assuming they're standing for election) is also a politician.
And so I have to wonder why such a tautology is marked "insightful."
(Score: 3, Touché) by mcgrew on Tuesday December 03, @02:47AM
And whatever novel you buy, you always get a book. And like politicians, books are all alike. That's Poe's Law!
Insightful? WTF?
Impeach Donald Saruman and his sidekick Elon Sauron
(Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 02, @12:28AM (3 children)
It doesn't mean anything to the people that reelect them either. So where does that leave us?
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 02, @03:24AM (2 children)
This is why "free speech" is so important, lest the powers that be classify any contrary opinions as "disinformation" and squelch it at the source.
Put it all out there. Generally, the people have a lot more sense over what's right, just as politicians have more sense over what's in their best interest.
The "Media" has become nothing more than a mouthpiece for the special interests that bought them. I don't want to see anyone restrained from having their say. I reserve the right to evaluate through my own bullshit filter.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by mcgrew on Tuesday December 03, @02:52AM
The "Media" has become nothing more than a mouthpiece for the special interests that bought them.
Wrong. The media are owned by the rich, who ARE the "special interests". The culture war is misdirection to keep your eye off the class war. The minimum wage was a living wage when I was young. We're losing the war, because as Lincoln pointed out, a house divided against itself cannot stand.
Impeach Donald Saruman and his sidekick Elon Sauron
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 02, @12:30AM (2 children)
Any chance we can deport Trump back to Oompa-Loompa land?
(Score: 5, Informative) by epitaxial on Monday December 02, @01:54AM
Best we can do is deport Elon https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/oct/26/elon-musk-illegal-immigration [theguardian.com]
(Score: 2) by Frosty Piss on Wednesday December 04, @06:22PM
You mean Mar-O-Lago? That's the "Southern Whitehouse"...
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Monday December 02, @12:38PM (6 children)
Another part of the reality here: Their actual problem is with Hispanic people, not illegal immigrants. You can tell this because they have publicly declared their intention to make it so Hispanic citizens aren't citizens anymore [youtube.com].
So if your name is, say, "Ramirez", it may not matter whether or not you are a US citizen carrying your driver's license, birth certificate, and Social Security card on your person. You are likely to be targeted by any round-ups in your area, and by my estimation there's a significant chance that those documents that prove you are a citizen those documents will go mysteriously missing.
Just because they learned to dress up their racism by calling their targets "illegals" rather than "w*****ks" does not mean that they aren't being racist.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 1, Troll) by Type44Q on Monday December 02, @02:42PM (3 children)
Their biggest proponents are Hispanic people - I know this because I've lived in New Mexico on and off for over thirty years and the only people I've ever heard use the term "wetback" are the local Hispanics.
By no means would I even dream of clicking whatever you've desperately cherry-picked in your attempt to ram-home a lie.
Facts:
1) As a true Liberal, I recognize that the 1st and 2nd Amendments are the greatest ideas Liberalism has ever produced.
2) If any of my fellow Americans feel comfortable just strolling into another country and culture (against the laws and wishes of the locals), I'd back their efforts to expel them, too.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by jelizondo on Monday December 02, @03:12PM
What you seem to forget is that New Mexico, Texas, California, etc. were part of Mexico and there were Mexicans living there before the U.S. annexed those territories. As someone told me in Texas, we been here forever, but the gringos moved the border and now they want us to go back “home”.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Monday December 02, @05:54PM (1 child)
OK then, you can just believe my description of it: The 1-minute clip shows Donald Trump discussing and reiterating the point that he believes he can and intends to sign an executive order ending "birthright citizenship" as described in the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, Section 1, thus enabling the children of non-citizens to be also declared non-citizens, and thus a legal target for deportation. This effort is very obviously aimed at the idea that Hispanic people are crossing the border illegally and having "anchor babies" that keep them in America.
This idea has been the subject of significant reporting from across the political spectrum. To simply declare it a "lie" without evidence seems silly at best.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 2) by cmdrklarg on Monday December 02, @08:15PM
The Florida Orange Man says a lot of things, most of which are complete bullshit. While the GOP will have control of all the three branches of the US government in January (barely), they will not have enough control that would give them the ability to repeal the 14th Amendment.
Article 5 is quite specific. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_Five_of_the_United_States_Constitution [wikipedia.org]
The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.
(Score: 2) by aafcac on Monday December 02, @05:11PM
I'm not sure that "illegals" is really that much more problematic than the correct "illegal immigrants" is. The ones without documentation are here illegally, it's when the term is applied to people that are either citizens or have some type of legal paperwork to be in the US that it's racist.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Monday December 02, @02:39AM (2 children)
Wasn't this a given or did they believe they would all report for deportation or that ICE would prowl around in a van looking for illegals?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by epitaxial on Monday December 02, @03:09AM (1 child)
They wanted the bad illegals deported. Not their landscapers or the lady who sells tamales. Wait until they see what a white person roof costs.
(Score: 2, Troll) by Username on Monday December 02, @02:59AM (5 children)
Can't we filter them out? We all know this has nothing to do with tech. Just annoying people trying to shoehorn politics where it doesn't belong.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Monday December 02, @03:15AM (3 children)
Mass surveillance is exactly about tech.
Modern Fascism can't happen without Big Data collecting data on people.
In fact, old-timey fascism too relied on data [wikipedia.org]. This is nothing new.
(Score: 4, Funny) by deimios on Monday December 02, @07:10AM
In the Soviet times we had a joke:
-How do you know that you're under surveillance?
-A new wardrobe appeared in your room.
These days it's less funny since the equipment can fit inside a shirt button. Not that it's necessary with smartphones being everywhere.
(Score: 2) by Username on Monday December 02, @10:40AM
It's fake news, bro. All you need to do is ask yourself the question, "Why would democrats do the bidding of Trump?" Even if they are secret Trump supporters who infiltrated the Biden administration, why aren't they doing what he said in his speeches?
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Monday December 02, @12:46PM
New American fascism is also relying on mass data collection [wikipedia.org] and storage [wikipedia.org]. None of that punch cards and paper records with signatures business.
And you'll notice that efforts along those lines started long before 2016, just in case you thought this was a problem that could be dealt with by eliminating the Don.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 2, Troll) by DadaDoofy on Monday December 02, @11:32AM
Your're in the wrong place.
https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2024/11/18/leftists-fleeing-x-for-bluesky-flood-platform-with-complaints-censorship-requests-and-child-pornography/ [breitbart.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 02, @03:39AM (1 child)
Deportations shall not happen like that; the scale promised will simply overload all potential receiving nation's capacities. Same happened in 1930s Germany, with similar intent. The fact that the various nations of Europe at that time couldn't handle the influx of several million economic refugees all at once (as Jews were systematicly denied and forbidden employment) was taken as "proof" that nobody wanted Jews, amplifying the lie of Untermensch.
Deportation is not intended. Forced labour camps are, with facilities for murdering those marked "surplus to requirements."
You voted for Nazis, you got Nazis.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by DadaDoofy on Monday December 02, @04:31PM (4 children)
The linked New Yorker article rightly mentions the deal with Paragon was brokered and signed by the Biden/Harris DHS. They had every intent on using it to further their weaponization of government for attacks on their enemies. This huffing and puffing over the scary things that might happen under the bad orange man's leadership, is simply an attempt to sweep that inconvenient truth under the rug.
(Score: 3, Touché) by janrinok on Monday December 02, @04:55PM (3 children)
Any contract for ICE in the last 4 years will have been "brokered by Biden/Harris DHS. But none of the links support your claim. Where does it say that? Or is it your speculation?
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 3, Funny) by cmdrklarg on Monday December 02, @09:03PM
Dada is a frequent participant of the activity of projection, where the projectionist accuses the opposition of doing exactly what his side is doing or wants to do. Since his side is doing or wants to do *bad thing* he assumes that everyone else is also either doing it or wants to do it. He either doesn't understand or simply doesn't care that if it's bad for the "libs" to have that power it's also bad for the conservatives to have it.
They accuse the Democrats of "weaponization of government"; therefore that will give them the excuse to weaponize it when they control it.
The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday December 03, @12:26AM (1 child)
What Commander Klarg said. Doofus up there is one of the serious bad-faith pest posters and this site's signal to noise ration would go up noticeably if he fell into an open sewer.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1, Troll) by DadaDoofy on Tuesday December 03, @12:18PM
If I trigger you sweetie, get yourself on over to Bluesky. I hear they run a nice "safe space" over there.