Border enforcement agencies have spent billions assembling surveillance tools to track and find people. These could be critical in President Trump’s immigration agenda.According to The New York Times, border enforcement agencies have invested billions of dollars in surveillance tools to track and locate individuals. These tools could play a crucial role in President Trump’s immigration agenda.
Some of the technologies available to the Trump administration include apps and ankle monitors that can track asylum seekers in real time, databases filled with personal information like fingerprints and faces, and investigative tools that can access locked phones and search through emails, text messages, and other files.
The review of nearly 15,000 contracts shows that two agencies, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Citizen and Immigration Services, have spent a total of $7.8 billion on immigration technologies from 263 companies since 2020. Most of these contracts were initiated under the Biden administration.
These contracts cover a wide range of technologies, from basic phone services to advanced tools from both large and small companies. For example, Palantir, a data-analysis company co-founded by billionaire Peter Thiel, received over $1 billion in contracts over the past four years. Another company, Venntel, which provides location data, had seven contracts with ICE totaling at least $330,000 between 2018 and 2022.
While the Biden administration has used these technologies for immigration enforcement, including investigations into drug trafficking, human smuggling, and transnational gang activity, it is unclear how the Trump administration will utilize them. This is especially true as the government faces challenges such as a shortage of officers and facilities to detain individuals, and the whereabouts of many immigrants are already known.
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