Rights groups call for end to repressive, invasive technologies in immigration practices

Washington, June 2 (RHC)-- In the U.S., rights groups are demanding the Joe Biden administration stop using GPS-tracking ankle monitors and other technologies to surveil asylum seekers and immigrants.  Nearly 100,000 people are currently tracked by the devices that critics have dubbed “digital shackles.” Mijente and Just Futures Law hosted a panel on technology in immigration practices Tuesday. 

Jacinta González of Mijente talked about the government’s use of technology on the border.  She said: “We’ve seen time and time again that the same companies — Raytheon, Northrop Grumman — that are creating this — you know, Anduril, Palantir — that are creating this technology at the border are the same companies that have created technologies for wars abroad for decades. And so now they’re really seeing this as the new frontier, the new way to make an investment. 

"And the border — you know, we might think the border is just one line that just expands a couple of miles, but it’s actually most of the United States. And so, this way, once they start to introduce this technology in the hundred miles around the border, in our airports, in different ports of entry, in this way, it becomes normalized and then starts to trickle down to local police departments.”