The threat of government surveillance on citizens’ activities has sparked massive concern from both sides of the aisle in Congress. Recent reports state that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is considering greenlighting a controversial, nationwide immigration monitoring program that would use AI-assisted facial recognition software to surveil immigrants’ movements and employ predictive analysis on their behavior.
According to the USCIS, the program would employ sophisticated facial recognition software in conjunction with specialized facial recognition algorithms to track immigrants as they move throughout the country. The technology would also be utilized to predict possible behavior based on analyzing data obtained from the individuals in question. This has alarmed legislators on both sides of the political spectrum, as some are concerned about how this technology may bring about the erosion of civil rights that should be afforded to all residents–regardless of citizenship status.
Progressives and conservatives alike agree that immigrants should not be subjected to this level of scrutiny by governmental agencies. “We have a long-standing national motto, ‘Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,’” said Senator Ron Johnson, a Republican from Wisconsin who wrote to the Department of Homeland Security to express his opposition to the program. “That’s not what [the] USCIS is doing here. This proposed program goes against everything our country stands for.”
Many agree, with privacy advocates raising serious concerns about the potential implications of such advanced surveillance of citizens. “This proposed immigration monitoring program is an alarming development that raises serious privacy concerns for all Americans,” said Neema Singh Guliani, the ACLU’s national security legislative counsel. “The government should be required to disclose the extent of the data collection and the technology it is using. We need to know more about the potential for abuse and any plans to use the program to target vulnerable populations like immigrants and people of color.”
It appears that this fight against the USCIS’s proposed program has brought together both progressives and conservatives in Congress on an issue that normally divides them. The moral implications of this advanced immigration-monitoring program is something that should concern all Americans. When it comes to technology that could infringe on civil rights, we should all be united in our opposition.