The United States under President Donald Trump is ramping up use of surveillance systems and artificial intelligence (AI) to track and arrest immigrants, raising fears that risks to accuracy and privacy could put almost anyone in danger of getting caught up in the crackdown.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other immigration control agencies are using a suite of AI tools — such as facial recognition scanners in public areas and robotic dogs patrolling the southern border for human movement — as part of the crackdown on alleged illegal immigration.
Many of the AI tools that immigration agents are using have been in place for years and are a legacy of previous administrations, according to Saira Hussain, an attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights advocacy group.
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