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Report: ICE spending on AI surveillance tools soars to track immigrants

newsJun 24, 202618922

The Guardian reported that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s contracts for AI-enabled surveillance tools jumped from about $310 million to $513 million in 2026, a record high. The spending funds commercial data brokers, facial recognition systems, predictive analytics and other vendor software that feed intelligence to ICE and Customs and Border Protection. Civil rights groups and privacy experts warn the expansion broadens ICE’s automated tracking capabilities, enables use of commercial datasets for enforcement, and risks normalizing mass surveillance beyond immigrant communities.

Matthew Guariglia
@mguariglia.bsky.social

In Ottawa, the police chief had to make a 7-minute video telling officers to stop using databases and surveillance tools to look up women they found attractive out in the world. This is a major problem *everywhere* and one that has only gotten worse as police have gotten access to more technology.

42745d ago
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