Weekly Spotlight: A Privacy Nightmare

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EXECUTIVE POWER GRAB

In Oregon and Illinois, the President’s abuse of power is on trial

Two concurrent court cases on opposite sides of the country are examining President Trump’s dangerous National Guard deployments. In Portland, Oregon, an appeals court is reconsidering the ruling that initially allowed the deployment of troops into the city; in Chicago, a district court’s block on the deployments remains in place while the Supreme Court considers the legal challenge from Illinois officials. POGO applauds these efforts. Especially in the face of a politicized Department of Justice (more on this below), it is vital that the courts defend and uphold the rule of law — because the law is indeed on our side. Federal law and the Constitution make it clear that the military can be deployed domestically only in the rarest emergency circumstances. There is no emergency right now that would warrant the militarization of our cities. The real emergency is the president’s egregious overreach of executive power.

• The latest: The Pentagon has ordered all 50 states’ National Guards to form “quick reaction forces” for “riot control.” But the administration has already made it clear that it doesn’t care about the difference between a riot and a protest.
• National Guard troops can’t arrest people, but they can detain them. When does a detention cross the line into an arrest? “It’s an incredibly fuzzy line,” David Janovsky tells OregonLive.
• The Pentagon announced that it moved around $8 billion in research, development, testing, and evaluation funds to pay troops — including those currently deployed to American cities — during the government shutdown. While we strongly believe that no service member or civil servant should go without pay, this reappropriation violated the Antideficiency Act.
• Meanwhile, the Pentagon has severely restricted press access, which could impact transparency and accountability for the Defense Department, as POGO’s Virginia Burger and Mark Thompson write.

SURVEILLANCE WATCH

Mobile Fortify is a privacy nightmare

ICE and CBP agents can now “identify” people just by scanning them with their phone camera. Their tool, an app called Mobile Fortify, has a database of 200 million photos and can “identify” a person’s name, date of birth, country of origin, and whether they have an open deportation order. “Identify” is in quotes because facial recognition technology (FRT) is notoriously prone to misidentification, especially with people of color — an unreliability that has huge potential to exacerbate the indiscriminate detentions and warrantless arrests that we’ve witnessed under this administration. POGO has long raised alarm about the dangers of this technology, and the footage emerging of immigration agents pointing their phones in people’s faces is an embodiment of our gravest concerns. Thankfully, members of Congress share our concerns here. Three ranking members of the House Committee on Homeland Security are pressing Kristi Noem with pointed questions on legality and privacy. You deserve answers.

• ICE can track you. But you can’t track ICE. Apple, Google, and Facebook have all capitulated to administration demands and shut down apps and pages devoted to crowdsourcing information about local ICE activity.
• “One of the reasons why the use of these technologies is uniquely dangerous is that there are virtually no legal guardrails in place to prevent mass surveillance, and what did exist has been bulldozed,” POGO’s privacy expert Don Bell told Reuters.
• Stephen Miller, White House Deputy Chief of Staff, threatened to arrest Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker for trying to block aggressive deportation tactics and claimed that ICE agents have “federal immunity.” This is false — but if the administration were to make it true, it would be incredibly dangerous to public safety. Law enforcement officials can’t exist above the law.
• Surveillance technologies aren’t the only tools in the frightening toolbox. ICE has increased its weapons spending by an arresting 600% in the past year, stockpiling guns, armor, and chemical agents.

DEPARTMENT OF (IN)JUSTICE

The proof is in the pudding

Before New York Attorney General Letitia James was indicted on mortgage fraud charges by a federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia last month, the previous prosecutor on the case refused to indict her, citing a lack of evidence, and was even fired because of it. Now, Politico has obtained key documents that identify major, glaring flaws in the Justice Department’s case against James — namely that she was, in fact, legally permitted to rent out the second home the DOJ accuses her of illegally renting. James is one of many perceived political opponents experiencing the wrath of the weaponized Justice Department. It’s vital for the courts to step in to ensure prosecutors aren’t putting politics above their oath to seek justice.

• Read More: More than 100 former Justice Department officials call for ‘vindictive’ case against former FBI Director James Comey to be dismissed (The Independent).
• MEANWHILE... President Trump is demanding the DOJ pay him $230 million of your taxpayer dollars as compensation for the past investigations against him. “It’s interesting, ’cause I’m the one that makes the decision, right?” he told the press. Lawmakers in the House are probing this outrageous attempted cash grab.