DAILY TRIFECTA: Trump's Police State Of Mind
Rounding up a posse
THE SET-UP: Trump wants to turn the southern border into a long, continuous military base. That’s according to the first of today’s stories … all of which point in the same direction of his repeated wish-casting about shipping incarcerated American citizens to jails in other countries.
Trump deporting US felons is one of those those ideas that seem so manifestly unconstitutional and, frankly, outlandish, it is hard to imagine it progressing past late night monologue punchline.
But I’m not laughing it off.
This is about far more than just militarizing the border. This is about stretching (or breaking) the current limits on domestic deployments of the US Military to include law enforcement duties. It’s the same strategy behind his thus-far successful attempt to expand the Alien Enemies Act. People are being shipped out without due process. That’s happening right now, US District Judge James Boasberg’s “probable cause” finding notwithstanding.
Of course, Trump’s regime is in contempt of his mid-March order to halt flights under the Alien Enemies Act. But even more, Trump’s regime is contemptuous of the courts whenever the courts disagree with its ongoing effort to reshape the powers of the presidency and the nature of the republic. What’s more, they think it’s great politics to do so. They believe immigration trumps everything in the minds of voters … even their own Constitutional rights. Perhaps because they don’t hear Trump threatening them with a denial of due process or an unplanned trip to a foreign prison. Or perhaps they are willing to trade Constitutional freedoms for safety.
Whatever the American people think or feel about it, if Trump is able to undermine Posse Comitatus, that's another opening he can use to ship "homegrowns" to overseas prisons. And that, in turn, could merge with his regime’s widening effort to root-out “improper ideologies.” From the Smithsonian to Harvard, the model the regime is applying to Americans and American institutions is eerily similar to the litmus test Marco Rubio’s State Department is using to detain and deport immigrants holding student visas. Again, it may seem outlandish on its face, but don’t sleep on the possibility of American citizens ultimately being “vetted” by the same system Palantir built to identify potential deportees. They call it “enhanced vetting” and it’s already kinda happening to US citizens.
Should Trump score a few more inches from the Supreme Court, he’s going to take miles and miles … all the way to an offshore prison where people with improper ideologies could find themselves because the regime identified them as “terrorists” who pose a clear and present danger to Trump’s regime … or his ego. - jp
TITLE: Trump eyes new plan to militarize the border: Turn it into a miles-long Army base
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/immigration/3380708/trump-new-plan-militarize-border-miles-long-army-base/
EXCERPTS: The Trump administration is beginning to hand hundreds of miles of land along the southern border over to the Department of Defense in a novel immigration strategy that would treat the territory as one long military base.
Last week, the Trump administration instructed the Interior Department to start transferring the land, a 60-foot-wide tract that runs through California, Arizona, and New Mexico, to the Pentagon, with a test site established to the east of Fort Huachuca.
The move amounts to a test of the new policy, with the executive order giving the Pentagon 45 days to assess the operation, but should the Trump administration decide to proceed with its plan, it would amount to a dramatic escalation in its attempts to militarize the border.
Trump’s executive order is aimed at getting around the Posse Comitatus Act by citing an exception known as the “military purpose doctrine.” If the military’s presence is primarily for a military purpose rather than for law enforcement, it would, in theory, not be in violation of the act and could arrest trespassers.
Elizabeth Goitein, senior director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law, called that rationale legally dubious and an “abuse of emergency powers” by the Trump administration, arguing in a series of posts on X that the apprehensions must be “incidental” and not the primary purpose of the military site.
“It is high time Congress and the courts put an end to all of these power grabs. Immigration laws can and should be enforced through lawful means, without abusing emergency powers, misappropriating wartime authorities, or trying to skirt the Posse Comitatus Act,” she said.
TITLE: ICE Just Paid Palantir Tens of Millions for ‘Complete Target Analysis of Known Populations’
https://www.404media.co/ice-just-paid-palantir-tens-of-millions-for-complete-target-analysis-of-known-populations/
EXCERPTS: Last week Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) paid contracting giant Palantir tens of millions of dollars to make modifications to a powerful ICE database and search tool to allow “complete target analysis of known populations” and to update the tool’s targeting and enforcement priorities, according to procurement records reviewed by 404 Media.
The records show that Palantir is actively working on, and making updates to, the technical infrastructure underpinning the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts. The news comes after ICE agents arrested a green card holding student at his interview to become a U.S. citizen; plainclothes officers picked up a student on the street for deportation despite the State Department finding no evidence she was linked to antisemitism or Hamas as claimed; and the American and El Salvadorian presidents deflecting when asked who was going to return a man who was mistakenly deported to a foreign mega prison. Trump has also called for deporting U.S. citizens to El Salvador.
At the same time, Palantir is running adverts at U.S. colleges which say “a moment of reckoning has arrived for the West. Our culture has fallen into shallow consumerism while abandoning national purpose. Too few in Silicon Valley have asked what ought to be built—and why. We did.”
“As a whole, extending Palantir's services with intentionally vague corporate-speak phrasing coupled with ICE's recent public escalation of violating people's rights via harassment, deportation without a basis, and terrorizing immigrants paints a clear picture: Palantir's engagement with ICE is facilitating and enabling abuses and violation of rights—rights like due process which, I want to note, extend to all in the US, regardless of citizenship status,” Calli Schroeder, senior counsel and global privacy counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), told 404 Media in an email after reviewing screenshots of the records.
“This modification adds licenses, configuration, and engineering services for the Investigative Case Management system to deploy new Targeting and Enforcement Prioritization, Self-Deportation Tracking, and Immigration Lifecycle Process capabilities,” one note on a contract between ICE and Palantir from April 11 for $29,898,236 reads. Another from March 14 says the award was for “Modification for Data Analytics to support complete target analysis of known populations and populate lead tracking solutions.”
The Investigative Case Management system, or ICM, connects to other DHS and federal databases, including SEVIA which contains records about people who are inside the country on a student visa; real-time maps associated with ICE’s location tracking tools; and other information from other federal agencies. The Intercept has previously reported that those agencies include the FBI, DEA, ATF, and CIA.
ICM then allows ICE to search for and filter people by hundreds of highly specific categories. 404 Media viewed parts of the database last week, and saw those categories include a person’s resident and entry status; physical characteristics such as tattoos or scars; race, hair, and eye color; place of employment; Social Security Number; driver’s license status; bankruptcy status, and location and license plate reader data.
“The terms used in these documents do nothing to further transparency as they raise more questions than answers. Palantir's technology and ICE's use of it further oppressive and unjust surveillance practices and we have to demand better accountability and transparency from both,” Schroeder said.
TITLE: The Apps Helping — And Hindering — ICE's Mass Deportations
https://www.newsweek.com/apps-tracking-ice-activity-mass-deportations-trump-administration-2059996
EXCERPTS: ICERAID is built on the idea that citizens can help with data gathering, such as crime and immigration law violations, and then be rewarded for their efforts with crypto, according to those who created the app.
"ICERAID enables citizens to earn rewards in its RAID token, a reward system that delegates criminal evidence gathering and validation tasks across eight different categories of criminal activity that would otherwise be performed by government and law enforcement agencies," the team behind the app told Newsweek via email.
"The functionality of the app makes a much better use case for crypto other than meme coins," the developers told Newsweek. "As a result, it may also suggest an unprecedented way to increase efficiencies in government agencies by facilitating a symbiotic relationship with citizens."
The idea of hiring "bounty hunters" for illegal immigrants has been floated in some states, potentially offering cash rewards for those who help track down those wanted by ICE, but the use of technology and crypto in this way suggests a more modern approach.
So far, only a handful of reports have been added to the app's map, which owners say uses AI to help verify sources and material before submitting to official agencies. Developers said there are ongoing conversations with various government agencies on its implementation, but they would not disclose details.
There is also the chance for those without legal status to benefit, if they have not broken any other laws while in the U.S. Pursuing legal status and notifying ICERAID could lead to a crypto payout, ICERAID said.
"It was decided at the outset that rewards should be paid to undocumented migrants with no criminal record who come forward through a sponsorship program where they receive help to pursue legal status in the U.S. through various means including helping them retaining an immigration attorney," developers said.
At the same time, the federal government is using its own technology to track immigrants, both legal and illegal, as well as to facilitate deportations.
One of the largest private prison companies working with ICE, GEO Group, uses an app to verify the location of those without legal status not detained in its facilities, The New York Times reported.
Ankle monitors and smart watches are also aiding in the program known as Alternatives to Detention. The president has been critical of that program, but a limited capacity at ICE's detention facilities means releasing immigrants not seen as a threat to communities with a tracking device is one of the few available options.
GEO Group's technology is a money-maker for the company, the Times reported, with the federal government paying GEO $1 for every selfie sent in by an immigrant who needs to check in on a regular basis. The company also charges $3 per day for each smart watch worn.
DHS is also pushing immigrants in the country illegally to self-deport using an app it calls CBP Home. The Biden administration-era CBP Home app was repurposed with the feature allowing users to declare their intent to depart the U.S., and then provide evidence of having left.
AI is also being used to scour social media accounts of migrants, to check for signs of terrorism or antisemitism, with DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin saying in a statement on April 9 that Secretary Kristi Noem "made it clear that anyone who thinks they can come to America and hide behind the First Amendment to advocate for anti-Semitic violence and terrorism – think again. You are not welcome here."
Student visa holders have been one of the main targets for this operation so far, prompting concerns that immigrants will be stripped of their visas or deported without due process.
"Automated tools are error-prone and guaranteed to improperly categorize an unknown number of applicants' viewpoints as violent, terroristic, or antisemitic, even by the Administration's broad definitions of those terms," Kate Ruane, director of the Free Expression Project at the Center for Democracy & Technology, said in a statement shared with Newsweek.
"Their use for this purpose will have devastating effects on how free students feel to express their opinions in this country — for citizens and non-citizens alike. We can be sure the Administration is unlikely to stop here. The proverbial slope from seemingly reasonable uses of these technologies to unconstitutional and unjustifiably speech-suppressive uses is very slippery. That's why governments shouldn't start sliding down it to begin with."