"The Battalion Search and Rescue always carries the Electronic Frontier Foundation's zine in our desert rig. We're finding new surveillance all the time, and without a resource like that, we wouldn't know what the hell we're looking at."
Gregg Phillips claimed that he has in several instances 'teleported,' once into a Georgia Waffle House 50 miles away, where I can only assume a freshly made All-Star Special was waiting for him.
Civil liberties experts warn the expanding use of those systems risks sweeping up citizens and noncitizens alike, often with little transparency or meaningful oversight. Over the past year, Homeland Security and other federal agencies have dramatically expanded their ability to collect, share and analyze people's personal data, thanks to a web of agreements with local, state, federal and international agencies, plus contracts with technology companies and data brokers.
Thao was detained so abruptly that the agents whisked him away in his underwear despite the frigid winter weather, sparking outrage from social media users who watched viral footage of the incident. Thao said the agents drove him to the middle of nowhere before making him exit the vehicle to take additional photos. Not long after, they discovered he was a U.S. citizen with no criminal record. He was returned after approximately an hour.
Permanent-residency applications from more than seventy countries have been frozen, naturalization ceremonies cancelled. When spouses of U.S. citizens have shown up for routine green-card interviews, they've been arrested; others in the middle of applying for their legal status are getting detained and, in some cases, deported outright. The agency is beginning a sweeping campaign to denaturalize large numbers of citizens, aiming to strip them of their legal status; officials have monthly quotas for how many cases they must flag for review.