Now we begin to see the true reason for all the AI push.
>You had to live – did live, from habit that became instinct – in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every moment scrutinized.
So far 2 million illegal immigrants have left the US. Mass surveillance and enforcement technology is dismal to think about, though NSA and google have been doing it for years. I'm watching from my perspective in the UK where there is growing fury over the gross incompetence, negligence and mishandling of a mass immigration crisis which is so stupid it beggars belief. The various law enforcement agencies in the us don't cooperate that closely, so there's less scope for this to be abused against american citizens unlike in the UK.
> $5.7 million contract for AI-driven social media surveillance
Yeah, that would just about cover the cost of a pizza party in the AI world. You also can look at "Zignal Labs". The website looks like 100% snakeoil.
I have no doubt that ICE would love to have some AI-based software to detect illegal immigrants, but I doubt it's more effective than just regular datamining.
Enforcement on businesses hiring non legal workers - gets the root cause. Without fixing that we are just playing wack a mole - people will still venture to the US since jobs exist and ICE is better than what ever crap they are coming from. Sure you may dissuade a few on the margins.
We are not fixing the root cause here even if you believe that immigration is bad for the country. It’s just a farce.
The issue there is a lot of stolen identities and use of falsified or otherwise fake paperwork to obtain such employment. Then, you get people in positions to aid others to come into that organization illegally. It may not be direct leadership within a company, but I do think plenty of them turn a blind eye to it.
This is where reporting and raid events from ICE come into play. That said, I'd like to see plenty of organizations actually have their leadership held accountable. The East Palestine, Ohio train derailment for example should have seen corporate executives and board members find their personal finances at risk because of the damage caused for example. The US has a very poor history of ever holding company executives accountable in general. "Too big to fail."
instead of assuming we want to stop illegal immigration and then asking why we don't do the obvious thing that would accomplish that goal (eliminating the incentive to hire illegally by punishing companies that do it such that it's not worth it on the balance sheet), look at what the situation actually is and ask yourself why people would want that. The situation right now is that there's a near-endless supply of labor that is 100% exempt from any and all labor protections by dint of if they complain the boss can just call immigration, who will disappear the laborers but not punish the company in any way. The occasional disruption due to unanticipated ice intervention is well worth the cost of being able to pay your laborers sub-minimum wage and not being responsible for workplace injuries or human rights violations.
There is zero genuine interest here in dealing with illegal immigration issues, it’s just a very thin veil over state sponsored KKK style white supremacy terrorism. Videos all over the Internet show them violently attacking and terrorizing hispanic looking people with no concern for if they are citizens or not. At the Wilder raid in Idaho they were shooting children with rubber bullets, and zip tying them to watch as they brutally beat their (mostly US citizen) parents in front of them. At the same time you have the administration actively encouraging white immigration from South Africa.
“States rights” has always been a dog whistle for slavery and Jim Crow, with no connection to the ideal of Liberty that the words imply. It means “my right to deprive others of their rights.”
The issue is with taking anything they say at face value. They don't believe in anything, except what is convenient in the moment and would grant them more power and wealth. Now that they own the White House, Congress and SCOTUS, they are very much federalists and will seek to impose their views on the entire country. Simple, really.
They brandish the "don't tread on me flag" while cheering on Trump sending the national guard to blue cities (when the most violent cities in America are all red). They are supposedly against handouts, but watch Trump bail out the farmers and none of MAGA have anything to say about it. Because a majority of farmers vote red.
They wouldn't have any issue with actual socialism, as long as it only benefitted republican voters.
While others have pointed out his pro-Hamas rhetoric, I would also point out that we don't actually know why he was detained. The Guardian is just citing speculation from an advocacy group friendly to him. The headline is technically accurate, but it could just as well read "journalist detained after eating cheerios for breakfast".
(ICE's lack of transparency is a valid, but separate, concern, and The Guardian could have at least attempted to contact them before publishing speculation.)
Well, other agencies have mostly used things like this to collect evidence against real crimes. ICE is using it to enforce Orwellian "thought crimes" where they are revoking visas and green cards, and then often just minutes or hours later violently kidnapping people for their political views. Over 6,000 USA college students so far have had their visas revoked and been targeted by ICE officers, for exercising their constitutional right to freedom of speech and freedom of association.
If we organized a content storm campaign we could make this effort moot. Time to start building a portfolio of dummy accounts to muddy the water. Remember... TAILS and fresh IP's for each account, ideally nodes you can get back on with ease. Use a public network if possible.
Bonus: You can also use these accounts to undermine the Online Safety Act at the same time!
So you say that I can burn a bit of ICE's GPUs by typing words suggesting I plan to hire undocumented workers I plan to hire undocumented workers I plan to hire undocumented workers I plan to hire undocumented workers I plan to hire undocumented workers I plan to hire undocumented workers I plan to hire undocumented workers I plan to hire undocumented workers I plan to hire undocumented workers
Can't anyone use AI to surveil social media, even ordinary citizens? It seems like it would be easy to surveil ICE, the police, immigrants, all politicians, the military, businesses, government, individuals, groups, anyone and anything anyone has an interest in. Is the future everyone surveilling everyone else? There used to be web services that let you set up "standing queries" for anything you were interested in. In a sense chatbots already contain a historical record of the internet in compressed format and allow anyone to do historical queries on anything, limited only to what has been accessible on the internet. "Googling someone" is becoming "ChatGPTing someone". People felt Googling someone was somewhat rude and parents warned their children to limit what they posted in case future employers looked them up. Same for anyone employed, they are learning to be careful what they post in case their employers see it. Seems like free speech is being suppressed because it can be used against you by various people and groups already. This may help explain why the web has become less interesting and anonymous posting is ubiquitous.
Many people don’t understand that government power MUST be limited in a democracy if you wish to slow the spread of tyranny.
Assume you live in a country 50/50 red and blue people. Red wins the election and the new leader cracks down on the blues hard for how they look. Replace this with any arbitrary law that benefits one group at the expense of another for no purpose.
Assuming one of the arbitrary rules is not to destroy the elections (yet), and blue manages to gain back control, the same arbitrary power now falls into blue hands. You will rarely see power being returned (the root cause of rot), and now blue is free to make arbitrary rules and persecute any color they wish. In effect, red voted against their interests long-term, for short-term advantage.
At the moment we have masked and license plate tampering hit squads (with no accountability, they can claim even a daylight bank robbery wasn’t ICE.. try to prove or fight it).
Imagine the next president is a man like Putin, with not just the intelligence, but the will to seize permanent control. We’re handing keys to our jailers over overblown online rhetoric and fear. Now we’re targeting specific groups, profiling based on if they look “illegal”. Where have we seen this happen before and leading to a second war?
STOP giving the government power people. It doesn’t end well. Of the people and for the people only works when don’t give deity-like power to our stewards.
As much as a like to fantasize how a Cincinnatus-esque figure could emerge to fix things, the unfortunate truth is that many times the system needs to be rebuilt to secure balance again. It needs to be equal measure of the government protecting the civilian population as well the citizens protecting themselves from the government to be a successful democracy.
I’m a little surprised at the level of interest in ICE these days. They’ve been around for a while now, and have been used by past presidents in similar ways.
Barack Obama was called out by the ACLU for his use of ICE. He was called a monster.
If people condemn Trump and Obama both, then I respect their thinking. But if they applaud Obama and condemn Trump, I don’t believe they are showing integrity.
44 comments
[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 62.5 ms ] thread>You had to live – did live, from habit that became instinct – in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every moment scrutinized.
– George Orwell, 1984
Ice Agents: "Is <name> here illegally?" AI prompt: "you're absolutely right!"
Yeah, that would just about cover the cost of a pizza party in the AI world. You also can look at "Zignal Labs". The website looks like 100% snakeoil.
I have no doubt that ICE would love to have some AI-based software to detect illegal immigrants, but I doubt it's more effective than just regular datamining.
We are not fixing the root cause here even if you believe that immigration is bad for the country. It’s just a farce.
This is where reporting and raid events from ICE come into play. That said, I'd like to see plenty of organizations actually have their leadership held accountable. The East Palestine, Ohio train derailment for example should have seen corporate executives and board members find their personal finances at risk because of the damage caused for example. The US has a very poor history of ever holding company executives accountable in general. "Too big to fail."
instead of assuming we want to stop illegal immigration and then asking why we don't do the obvious thing that would accomplish that goal (eliminating the incentive to hire illegally by punishing companies that do it such that it's not worth it on the balance sheet), look at what the situation actually is and ask yourself why people would want that. The situation right now is that there's a near-endless supply of labor that is 100% exempt from any and all labor protections by dint of if they complain the boss can just call immigration, who will disappear the laborers but not punish the company in any way. The occasional disruption due to unanticipated ice intervention is well worth the cost of being able to pay your laborers sub-minimum wage and not being responsible for workplace injuries or human rights violations.
They brandish the "don't tread on me flag" while cheering on Trump sending the national guard to blue cities (when the most violent cities in America are all red). They are supposedly against handouts, but watch Trump bail out the farmers and none of MAGA have anything to say about it. Because a majority of farmers vote red.
They wouldn't have any issue with actual socialism, as long as it only benefitted republican voters.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/26/ice-detains-...
(ICE's lack of transparency is a valid, but separate, concern, and The Guardian could have at least attempted to contact them before publishing speculation.)
Why is it surprising if another law enforcement agency like ICE uses it?
Bonus: You can also use these accounts to undermine the Online Safety Act at the same time!
Right?
You pay tax direct as us residents, or as tariff if you are in rest of world.
https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~tom7/spook/
Assume you live in a country 50/50 red and blue people. Red wins the election and the new leader cracks down on the blues hard for how they look. Replace this with any arbitrary law that benefits one group at the expense of another for no purpose.
Assuming one of the arbitrary rules is not to destroy the elections (yet), and blue manages to gain back control, the same arbitrary power now falls into blue hands. You will rarely see power being returned (the root cause of rot), and now blue is free to make arbitrary rules and persecute any color they wish. In effect, red voted against their interests long-term, for short-term advantage.
At the moment we have masked and license plate tampering hit squads (with no accountability, they can claim even a daylight bank robbery wasn’t ICE.. try to prove or fight it).
Imagine the next president is a man like Putin, with not just the intelligence, but the will to seize permanent control. We’re handing keys to our jailers over overblown online rhetoric and fear. Now we’re targeting specific groups, profiling based on if they look “illegal”. Where have we seen this happen before and leading to a second war?
STOP giving the government power people. It doesn’t end well. Of the people and for the people only works when don’t give deity-like power to our stewards.
Barack Obama was called out by the ACLU for his use of ICE. He was called a monster.
If people condemn Trump and Obama both, then I respect their thinking. But if they applaud Obama and condemn Trump, I don’t believe they are showing integrity.
Feel free to get your undies in a bundle over my "I'm on a MF-in' boat" FourSquare check-in.
Rule #1 of staying off the radar: Don't deliberately put yourself on the radar.