Sat Apr 19 03:55:28 UTC 2025: ## Trump Administration Expands AI-Driven Surveillance in Immigration Crackdown, Sparking Privacy Concerns

**NEW YORK, April 19, 2025** – The Trump administration is significantly expanding the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and surveillance technologies to track and apprehend immigrants, raising serious concerns about accuracy, privacy violations, and potential for widespread abuse. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other agencies are leveraging facial recognition, robotic border patrols, and social media data mining by private contractors like Babel Street to identify and track individuals.

This intensified surveillance, critics argue, goes beyond targeting undocumented immigrants. The “Catch and Revoke” program, for example, uses AI to monitor the public speech of foreign nationals, potentially revoking visas based on perceived affiliations with groups deemed undesirable. Over 300 individuals have already had their visas revoked under this initiative.

Digital rights advocates highlight the inherent risks of AI’s potential for inaccuracies (“hallucinations”), leading to wrongful arrests. Several documented cases involve U.S. citizens mistakenly apprehended based on faulty AI data. Concerns also extend to the potential revival of Rapid DNA testing, previously discontinued due to privacy and accuracy issues.

Experts like Saira Hussain of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Tekendra Parmar, an independent tech analyst, contend that accuracy is secondary to achieving deportation targets. The system, they argue, creates a “rubber stamp deportation policy” under the guise of technological advancement.

The expansion of surveillance isn’t limited to federal agencies. Trump’s executive order promoting 287(g) agreements empowers local law enforcement to act as federal immigration officers, granting them access to the same AI tools and vast datasets, exponentially increasing the scope of surveillance. This interconnected system, critics warn, aggregates data from various sources, creating comprehensive profiles that can implicate individuals beyond the initial targets, potentially affecting their families, neighbors, and workplaces.

Despite repeated requests for comment, neither DHS nor ICE responded. The ongoing expansion of AI-driven surveillance in immigration enforcement continues to fuel debate and concern over the balance between national security and individual liberties.

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