Another article that highlights how our data is sold and repackaged to institutions whose intentions may not align with our own.

#ice #airlines #transportation #security #surveillance #privacy #usa #civilliberties #data #flights #travel #tech #news

https://archive.ph/yF7gt
1/3

https://www.404media.co/license-plate-reader-company-flock-is-building-a-massive-people-lookup-tool-leak-shows/

Flock, who provides automatic license plate readers (ALPR) to law enforcement, is developing a new product called Nova.

Nova aims to link LPR data to personal information obtained from data breaches, commercially available data, public records, and law enforcement databases.

This would allow police to easily track the movements of specific people around the country, without a warrant or court order.

Keep calm (but delete your nudes): the new rules for travelling to and from Trump’s America https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/15/travel-trump-america-us-border-detentions #Civilliberties-international #UnitedStatesholidays #USimmigration #DonaldTrump #USpolitics #Worldnews #Protest #USnews #Travel #Law

Ford government has introduced a bill that would allow #CivilForfeiture in #Ontario. https://www.ola.org/en/legislative-business/bills/parliament-44/session-1/bill-10#BK10

Civil Forfeiture allows the police to steal your property and force you to prove that you didn't commit a crime. It is an affront to #DueProcess of law.

"If history is any guide, rescuing the rights now being rolled back will require a range of tactics, including vigorous #protest itself. It will also require building broad and unwavering consensus about the speciousness of the rationales being offered for today’s draconian crackdowns."

Alex Gourevitch | The Right to Be Hostile

https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/the-right-to-be-hostile/

#USpol #StudentProtests #FreeSpeechOnCampus #stateRepression #PalestineSolidarity #rightToProtest #civilLiberties #activism @palestine

"That the Trump administration is using social media surveillance on student visa holders residing in the United States is a disturbing apparent escalation of a longstanding trend.

EFF has long sounded the alarm on the civil liberty harms of government social media surveillance. In particular, since 2019, visa applicants have been required to disclose all social media accounts they have used in the last five years to the U.S. government. That policy is the subject of an ongoing lawsuit, Doc Society v. Pompeo, in which EFF filed an amicus brief.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently upped the ante by ordering officials to deny visas to new or returning student applicants if their social media broadly demonstrates “a hostile attitude toward U.S. citizens or U.S. culture (including government, institutions, or founding principles).” Notably, Rubio indicated this standard could also apply to current student visa holders. The State Department also announced it will review the social media of any visa applicant who has been to Gaza since 2007.

The Trump administration has also proposed dramatically expanding social media scrutiny by requiring non-citizens already legally residing in the U.S. to disclose social media accounts on a variety of forms related to immigration benefits, such as people seeking lawful permanent residency or naturalization. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), a component of DHS, also announced it would look for “antisemitic activity” on social media to deny immigration benefits to individuals currently in the country."

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/04/trump-administrations-targeting-international-students-jeopardizes-free-speech-and

This Is #Palestine pod | Justice for Mahmoud Khalil

#DianaButtu speaks with Dr Noor Abdalla, a Syrian-American dentist and the wife of Palestinian student activist and political prisoner Mahmoud Khalil

https://this-is-palestine.simplecast.com/episodes/justice-for-mahmoud-khalil-a-conversation-with-dr-noor-abdalla-wife-of-mr-khalil

#USpol #USpolitics #PalestineSolidarity #GazaSolidarity #FreeMahmoudKhalil #stateRepression #politicalRepression #studentProtests #ICE #ICEdetention #civilRights #civilLiberties @palestine

A portion of the crowd of peaceful democracy protectors in Austin, TX today listening to speakers and music as part of #HandsOff.

Next action is May 1st at the State Capitol from 5 pm to 8 pm. Come join the movement against #Trump and #fascists.

#ATX #Austin #AustinTX #Texas #Musk #ElonMusk #DOGE #DueProcess #50501 #FreeSpeech #USConstitution #CivilLiberties

Remember how MAGA talked about how the FBI was corrupt and targeting Americans? Well, MAGA FBI, run by Kash Patel, is targeting musicians for protected speech, like songs. This is chilling free speech protected under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. https://www.whidbeynewstimes.com/news/fbi-questions-leader-of-oak-harbor-punk-band-over-lyrics/ #uspol #civilliberties #privacy

No-Bid #ICE Contract Went to Former ICE Agents Being Sued for Fabricating Criminal Evidence on the Job

The $73 million deal for assisting with deportations went to a company whose executives are accused of retaliating against a fellow ICE worker.

Sam Biddle, April 17 2025

"U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement just signed a contract worth $73 million with a firm whose executives are accused of taking part in a scheme to manufacture evidence against a co-worker during their time working at the Department of Homeland Security.

"According to a contract document reviewed by The Intercept, federal contractor #UniversalStrategicAdvisors will provide services pertaining to #ICE’s 'non-detained docket,' a master list of millions of #noncitizens believed to be removable from the United States but not yet in the agency’s custody.

"The contract cites President Donald #Trump’s declaration of a #NationalEmergency on the #USMexicoBorder, an overwhelming glut of potential #deportees, and a shortage of officers to process them all as justification for hiring a private vendor to assist with the collection of biometric data, coordinating removals, and monitoring #immigrant populations.

"The document says that with a fleet of new outsourced employees, ICE can reassign hundreds of officers to tasks that better align with Trump’s recent executive orders aimed at maximizing the agency’s detention and deportation operations. With the contractors onboard, the document says at least 675 ICE officers 'will be able to take all appropriate actions to comply with the EO’s by prioritizing conducting at-large arrests, removals, and detention related activities.'

"A former ICE official, who spoke to The Intercept on the condition of anonymity, said they were concerned by this plan to further privatize the agency’s operations at the same time as the Trump administration has dramatically slashed its workforce and gutted important oversight bodies like the Office for #CivilRights and #CivilLiberties, as well as the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman. 'I certainly take issue with them firing career feds and demolishing whole offices, just to hire contractors to do the same work, many of them who are former ICE employees now retired,' the official said."

Read more:
https://theintercept.com/2025/04/17/ice-deportation-contracts-us-advisors/

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/DjRAG

US Citizens Don’t Have First Amendment Rights If Noncitizens Don’t

https://www.cato.org/blog/us-citizens-dont-have-first-amendment-rights-noncitizens-dont

State of Emergency in US #HigherEd

Alan Wald of UMichigan's Faculty and Staff for Justice in #Palestine discusses the climate of #politicalRepression directed at #PalestineSolidarity work and the parallels with earlier periods of #stateRepression including the McCarthy and Red Scare eras

https://marxedproject.org/event/state-of-emergency-in-us-higher-education/

#Gaza #GazaSolidarity #StudentProtests #FacultyProtests #USpol #USpolitics #FreeSpeechOnCampus #deportations #civilLiberties #civilRights #censorship #AcademicFreedom @palestine

Pro-#Palestinian protester’s lawyer stopped and searched at US border: ‘They were going to take my device’

Amir Makled says immigration officials questioned him about his phone’s contents. Experts warn fourth amendment rights have been weakened at the border

from #TheGuardian #Guardian
Johana Bhuiyan
Sat 12 Apr 2025 08.00 EDT

"#AmirMakled thought he was being racially profiled. A Lebanese American who was born and raised in Detroit, the attorney was returning home from a family vacation in the Dominican Republic when he said an immigration official at the Detroit Metro airport asked for a “TTRT” agent after scanning his passport on Sunday. Makled said the expression on the agent’s face changed. He felt something “odd” was happening."

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/12/amir-makled-phone-search-border-immigration?CMP=share_btn_url

#DefendAcademicFreedom
#ReleaseMahmoudKhalil
#repression
#CivilLiberties
#DefendFreeSpeech
#ProtestIsNotACrime
#DefendStudentProtesters
#NeverStopTalkingAboutPalestine
#USA #US #USPolitics #Trump
#news #press @palestine

Take It Down Act nears passage; critics warn #Trump could use it against enemies

An anti-deepfake bill is on the verge of becoming US law despite concerns from civil liberties groups that it could be used by President Trump and others to #censor speech that has nothing to do with the intent of the bill.
#deepfake #civilliberties

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/04/congress-close-to-passing-deepfake-law-trump-said-he-wants-to-use-it-himself/

"Judith Butler and Aziz Rana join Adam Shatz to discuss Donald #Trump’s use of #executiveOrders to target #birthrightCitizenship, #protest, support of Palestinian rights, #academicFreedom, constitutionally protected speech and efforts to ensure inclusion on the basis of race, gender and sexual orientation."

https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/the-lrb-podcast/trump-s-war-by-executive-order

#USpol #MAGA #FreedomOfSpeech #politicalSpeech #TransRights #immigrantRights #civilRights #civilLiberties #stateRepression #PalestineSolidarity #Gaza @palestine

"A lawyer's spring break trip to the Dominican Republic with his family ended on a troubling note at Detroit Metro Airport on Sunday: He was detained by federal agents, questioned about his clients, and asked to give up his cellphone, he says.

But Dearborn attorney Amir Makled, who is representing a pro-Palestinian demonstrator who was arrested at the University of Michigan last year, stood his ground. He didn't give up his phone.

"I'm an American citizen. I'm not worried about being deported," Makled said he recalled thinking to himself in the airport interrogation room. "So, I tell them, 'I know you can take my phone. I'm not going to give you my phone, however ... 90% of my work is on my phone. You're not getting unfettered access to (it).' "

What followed was a 90-minute, back-and-forth verbal tussle between Makled and two federal agents, who, he said, ultimately released him without taking his phone, but looked at his contacts list instead. For the 38-year-old civil rights and criminal defense attorney, it was a daunting experience that he says highlights a troubling phenomenon that's occurring across the United States: Lawyers are getting targeted for handling issues the administration of President Donald Trump disagrees with."

https://eu.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/wayne/2025/04/07/lawyer-for-u-m-protester-held-at-airport-refused-to-give-feds-his-phone/82978891007/

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2025/apr/07/so-you-want-to-go-to-the-usa-are-you-sure-heres-how-to-prepare-your-machines-for-trumpistan

This guardian article (more a cartoon) talks about how Visitors to the US can secure their devices.

These tips could also be useful for anyone attending protests within the US.