Biden's ICE Is Well-Prepared To Carry Out Trump's Deporation Plans -- November 25, 2024

Locator: 44419DEPORTATION.

Trump 2.0 is followed here.

From Forbes today:

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is well prepared for President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to deport millions of undocumented immigrants when he takes office in January. In the three months prior to the November election, the agency signed $20 million in contracts for new phone hacking, surveillance and forensics technologies that can be used to spy on and track down the people Trump has vowed to expel from the country.

A Forbes review of recent ICE contracts found agreements to purchase an array of technologies that together can be used to surveil phone calls, texts and social media activity, identify people with facial recognition, remotely hack a smartphone and raid the contents of a device, including deleted data. These tools are made by a series of companies including Israel-based Paragon and Cellebrite, Canadian company Magnet Forensics, major American law enforcement contractor Pen-Link and the controversial facial recognition company Clearview AI. In the last five months, these companies received their largest federal purchase orders to date, all from ICE, contracting records show. 

While ICE will likely also use these technologies across its responsibilities, which include the investigation of cybercrime and child exploitation, critics warn they will become a powerful tool in Trump’s war against undocumented immigrants.

Will Owen of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project described cellphone hacking spyware spending as “a frightening look at how the Trump Administration plans to carry out mass deportations through authoritarian means,” adding that “these technologies have been used in democracies around the world to undermine protected civil liberties.”   

My hunch: Palantir is in the mix. 

Later. Did someone mention Palantir? Link to Forbes.

Time to review DACA. Link to wiki. The US House and US Senate have had plenty of time to make this law, but so far, nothing. US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in October, 2024. Seems like a no-brainer.

Is the nub of the issue?

• pro: although an "executive policy," the legislative branch has never passed a low to disallow it;
• con: to be "law," needs to be passed by the US legislature

It's amazing how far one needs to read into the wiki article to find out which president signed this executive order / policy. But right now, the US House / Senate won't act until the US Supreme Court rules.