Thread by @karl_jacoby, Border policing technology is now being applied to the homeland. This should [...]

Border policing technology is now being applied to the homeland. This should alarm all of us for multiple reasons.

U.S. Watched George Floyd Protests in 15 Cities Using Aerial Surveillance https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/19/us/politics/george-floyd-protests-surveillance.html?smid=tw-share

U.S. Watched George Floyd Protests in 15 Cities Using Aerial Surveillance

From Minneapolis to Buffalo, Homeland Security officials dispatched drones, helicopters and airplanes to monitor Black Lives Matter protests.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/19/us/politics/george-floyd-protests-surveillance.html?smid=tw-share

Customs and Border Protection is not supposed to operate more than 100 miles from a border, yet Minneapolis is over 250 miles from the closest international boundary. https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/5/29/21274828/drone-minneapolis-protests-predator-surveillance-police

Members of Congress want to know more about law enforcement’s surveillance of protesters

Lawmakers demanded more details about spy-grade technology, after a Predator drone was spotted over Minnesota.

https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/5/29/21274828/drone-minneapolis-protests-predator-surveillance-police

Drones can take video footage that can be paired with facial recognition software. https://www.nextgov.com/emerging-tech/2019/07/how-facial-recognition-changing-cbp-operations/158704/

How Facial Recognition is Changing CBP Operations

The tech is freeing up Customs and Border Protection employees—once they learned to trust it.

https://www.nextgov.com/emerging-tech/2019/07/how-facial-recognition-changing-cbp-operations/158704/

We still don't know what federal agency has the video footage of #BLM marchers. Also facial recognition software has built in biases that ought to concern all of us, as explored by @iamjohnoliver in this recent clip on @LastWeekTonight

Now it turns out that in addition to flying drones over Minneapolis, CBP also did aerial surveillance over 14 other cities, including New York; Chicago; Washington D.C.; Philadelphia; Detroit; El Paso; Miami; Aurora, Illinois; Buffalo; and Dayton, Ohio. https://www.cnet.com/news/homeland-security-used-aircraft-to-surveil-black-lives-matter-protests-in-15-cities/

Homeland Security used aircraft to surveil BLM protests in 15 cities

And some 270 hours of surveillance footage was broadcast live to a Border Patrol control room.

https://www.cnet.com/news/homeland-security-used-aircraft-to-surveil-black-lives-matter-protests-in-15-cities/

Any conversation about police reform will need to also tackle Customs and Border Patrol, which is the largest federal branch of law enforcement, with some 60,000 employees. https://www.lawfareblog.com/department-homeland-security-law-enforcement-agencies-require-expanded-oversight

Department of Homeland Security Law Enforcement Agencies Require

The potential for expanded interior Homeland Security law enforcement activity raises questions about whether components of the department being called upon are subject to appropriate training,

https://www.lawfareblog.com/department-homeland-security-law-enforcement-agencies-require-expanded-oversight

I wrote a short piece trying to provide some historical contest to these issues a week ago in Politico. https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/06/10/cbp-protests-border-zone-312151

Opinion | Why the CBP’s Presence at the DC Protests Should Alarm All Of Us

Unknown to many Americans, CBP has authority over a zone that runs from the border to 100 miles inland.

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/06/10/cbp-protests-border-zone-312151

My basic argument is that it is dangerous to tolerate different legal regimes for the "borderland" and the "homeland." The distinction between the exterior and the interior is always at risk of collapsing.

There is always the temptation for CBP to extend its zone of operations deeper into the interior of the US, be it via drones or via the deploying of CBP agents to Washington DC in an effort to overawe recent marchers. https://gizmodo.com/we-mapped-where-customs-and-border-protection-drones-ar-1843928454

We Mapped Where Customs and Border Protection Drones Are Flying in the U.S. and Beyond

In 2011, Rodney Brossart, a cattle rancher from Lakota, North Dakota was accused of stealing six cows. The cows, he said, simply wandered on to his 3,000-acre farm, and by his estimation, they,...

https://gizmodo.com/we-mapped-where-customs-and-border-protection-drones-ar-1843928454

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