Photo illustration by Max Herman/Borderless Magazine. Source images: Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago, Chelsea Verstegen, and Mark Stroud/Flickr From ankle monitors to biometric data collection, the Trump administration could use AI technology in its immigration enforcement actions.
Ankle monitors, biometric data, private records and surveillance towers at the border. These are a few of the ways immigrants are being monitored across the country. These methods of surveillance have been used and scrutinized for years, and now President Trump hopes to use them to aid his deportation efforts.
Since returning to the White House last month, Donald Trump has made immigration a focal point. In his first days, he declared a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border. He directed federal agencies to halt entry, reinstated his first-term “Remain in Mexico” policy, and shut down the CBP One app, which effectively canceled tens of thousands of pending appointments.
In a few short weeks, Trump expanded the powers of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to carry out the deportations, even for immigrants who came through legal means under President Joe Biden. As Trump continues to institute sweeping immigration policies and carry out his deportation efforts, his administration will be using surveillance technology from the border and beyond to facilitate these actions.
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“It changes the relationship between immigrants and these powerful actors who are gathering data,” said Harvard Faculty Associate Petra Molnar. “More data basically means more power and more control, and it also feeds into this data economy that’s grown up around the use of technology.”
Borderless Magazine spoke with Molnar about how the new administration is using technology to enforce its immigration agenda.
What type of technologies are used to monitor immigrants?
The New York Times recently reviewed 15,000 contracts held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Citizen and Immigration Services, which showed that these agencies have spent $7.8 billion on immigration technologies since 2020.
These contracts — which include both private and public companies — included tools to check familial relationships, systems that compare biometrics against criminal records, and technology that can rip and analyze phone data, hard drives and cars.
ICE has contracts with companies like LexisNexis, Palantir, Venntel, Clearview AI and Thomson Reuters, which collect and sell sensitive personal data — including location data and facial recognition data. (Borderless previously put together an explainer on the personal information that may be included on these sites.)
“There’s also an expansion of data sharing domestically between immigration enforcement and law enforcement which is not supposed to happen. There should be firewalls between the types of information that’s shared,” Molnar said.
Additionally, the Alternatives to Detention (ATD) program uses other forms to track the location of immigrants within the U.S. ICE uses Ankle monitors, GPS watches, and a phone app called SmartLink to get daily location updates.
What technology is used at the border?
The US-Mexico border spans nearly 2,000 miles through Arizona, Texas and New Mexico. A report by Mijente, Just Futures Law, and the No Border Wall Coalition details the technology hosted at the border wall to track people, phones, vehicles and property in real time.
This technology includes surveillance towers, ground sensors, aerial surveillance blimps, drones, biometric technologies such as facial recognition.
As of March 2024, there were an estimated 429 surveillance towers spanning the entire border. Among these are autonomous surveillance towers (ASTs), which are controlled by AI software. The solar-powered towers run 24 hours per day and are equipped with thermal imaging and radar and feed images through AI to determine what a moving object from about 1.5 miles away, according to reports.
How much does the U.S. spend on border technology?
The federal budget proposed for FY2025 includes more than $3 billion toward AI tech investment and application across agencies, a $1.2 billion increase from 2023 funding.
What are the implications of this sweeping surveillance?
Aside from the ability to conduct raids more easily, Molnar finds the use of AI and tracking technology in immigration as cause for serious alarm.
“There are a host of rights that are impacted by this type of technology — whether we’re talking about privacy rights and the indiscriminate sharing of really sensitive data of people who are on the move, people who are refugees, biometric data, and there’s discriminatory issues and impacts because we know that a lot of this technology is discriminatory against people with darker complexions.”
Molnar has been leading a project called the Migration and Technology Monitor, a living archive of reports and information on the effects of migration technologies and policies. She is among a group of national and global advocates calling for more oversight and discernment on how AI is used in immigration enforcement.
AI programs have a proven history of perpetuating discrimination. A recent study of 1,136 US cities found that the use of facial recognition technology (FRT) contributed to greater racial disparities in arrests and FRT deployment is associated with an increase in Black arrest rates and a decrease in white arrest rates.
A report by Mijente and Just Futures Law called Automating Deportation includes details on how even the government agencies responsible for creating standards for AI recognize that has, in many instances, worsened discrimination. The report states, “the use of AI tools that are trained with biased data will most impact communities who already face discrimination.”
“Now more than ever, we’re seeing that this is not just an abstract kind of exercise, but rather technology replicates the power differentials in society, and it’s always the people who are on the margins and who are the most vulnerable that are affected by technology the most,” said Molnar.
How does the Trump administration’s approach to tracking technology compare to the previous administrations?
Many of the tools that the Trump administration is using for surveillance have long been in place, and we’ve seen both Democrats and Republicans carry out policies that would allow for deeper surveillance and data sharing with government agencies.
“Two things can be true: it’s an exponential increase of what was being done before, and communities who are affected are very rightly terrified and traumatized. It’s a really scary time, while at the same time, it’s also building on what’s already been happening,” said Molnar.
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“The administrations that brought in a lot of the smart border technology were actually the Democrats. The Obama administration was where we first saw investment into smart border technology, automation, and surveillance. And so while rightly, we need to be fearful and critical of the second Trump administration, it also predates it because it is part of this broader move to turn to technology to make decisions at the border and strengthen the violent regime that’s already in place.”
The difference now, Molnar said, is that the Trump administration has made it clear that they will be using the years and years of information that’s been collected on immigrants to carry out these deportations. She predicts investment in the border industrial complex, which was estimated in 2023 to reach $81 billion by 2030, will skyrocket while remaining largely unregulated.
“There’s this idea that regulation stifles innovation, that’s still the foundational premise, and it’s troubling to see the normative influence that the private sector has, as in they set the stage on what we innovate on and why.”
Are there any measures in place to prevent misuse of personal data?
Yes, there are laws in some jurisdictions, like Illinois, around things like the collection and usage of biometric information, or the physical characteristics of an individual that can be used to identify them. However, Molnar says there’s a tiered system for national and international enforcement.
“Of the few protections that exist, they are typically stronger for citizens than they are for noncitizens,” she explained. “Oftentimes with the data of undocumented immigrants, states can derogate from whatever little responsibilities they have when they say that they need this data for national security because these exemptions are written into pretty much every single piece of law out there. It creates this “perfect system” of surveillance where there are virtually no checks and balances against what is collected, what is stored and what is shared.”
What can I do?
“The trauma and fear of affected communities is very real,” said Molnar. “It is a moment of despair, but I think it’s also a moment of resistance and solidarity. People are getting more knowledgeable, they’re becoming more aware. They want to make different alliances and allegiances and share knowledge with one another, and that’s a good first step: learn what’s happening and learn what your rights are.”
Borderless has put together a Know Your Rights guide in collaboration with local immigrant leaders and immigrant rights organizations.
These rights include:
- The right to remain silent
- The right to walk away from an interaction with ICE
- The right to refuse to be searched
- You do not have to open the door if an ICE official is knocking
- You do not have to sign any documents
- The right to hire a lawyer
- Police officers are restricted from working with ICE in Chicago and Illinois
- The right to take photos in public spaces if you have an interaction with ICE
The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights has also set up a hotline to call if you see ICE activity or need help locating someone in ICE custody. You can call 1-855-HELP-MY-FAMILY (1-855-435-7693).
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