Latest news with #ICERAID
Al Jazeera
9 hours ago
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
AI is fuelling a new wave of border vigilantism in the US
In Arizona's borderlands, the desert is already deadly. People crossing into the United States face blistering heat, dehydration, and exhaustion. But for years, another threat has stalked these routes: Armed vigilante groups who take it upon themselves to police the border – often violently, and outside the law. They have long undermined the work of humanitarian volunteers trying to save lives. Now, a new artificial intelligence platform is actively encouraging more people to join their ranks. recently launched in the United States, offers cryptocurrency rewards to users who upload photos of 'suspicious activity' along the border. It positions civilians as front-line intelligence gatherers – doing the work of law enforcement, but without oversight. The site opens to a map of the United States, dotted with red and green pins marking user-submitted images. Visitors are invited to add their own. A 'Surveillance Guidance' document outlines how to capture images legally in public without a warrant. A 'Breaking News' section shares updates and new partnerships. The platform is fronted by Enrique Tarrio – a first-generation Cuban American, far-right figure and self-styled 'ICE Raid Czar', who describes himself as a 'staunch defender of American values'. I have been researching border surveillance since 2017. Arizona is a place I return to often. I've worked with NGOs and accompanied search-and-rescue teams like Battalion Search and Rescue, led by former US Marine James Holeman, on missions to recover the remains of people who died attempting the crossing. During that time, I've also watched the region become a laboratory for high-tech enforcement: AI towers from an Israeli company now scan the desert; automated licence plate readers track vehicles far inland; and machine-learning algorithms – developed by major tech companies – feed data directly into immigration enforcement systems. This is not unique to the United States. In my book The Walls Have Eyes: Surviving Migration in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, I document how similar technologies are being deployed across Europe and the Middle East – from spyware in Greek refugee camps to predictive border enforcement by the EU's border agency, Frontex. These tools extend surveillance and control. They do not bring accountability or safety. Since Donald Trump's re-election in 2024, these trends have accelerated. Surveillance investment has surged. Private firms have flourished. ICE has expanded its powers to include unlawful raids, detentions and deportations. Military units have been deployed to the US-Mexico border. Now, ICERAID adds a new layer – by outsourcing enforcement to the public. The platform offers crypto rewards to users who upload and verify photographic 'evidence' across eight categories of alleged criminal activity. The more contributions and locations submitted, the more tokens earned. Surveillance becomes gamified. Suspicion becomes a revenue stream. This is especially dangerous in Arizona, where vigilante violence has a long history. Paramilitary-style groups have detained people crossing the border without legal authority, sometimes forcing them back into Mexico. Several people are known to have died in such encounters. ICERAID does not check this behaviour – it normalises it, providing digital tools and financial incentives for civilians to act like enforcers. Even more disturbing is the co-optation of resistance infrastructure. ICERAID's URL, is nearly identical to the website of People Over Papers, a community-led initiative that tracks ICE raids and protects undocumented communities. The similarity is no accident. It is a deliberate move to confuse and undermine grassroots resistance. ICERAID is not an anomaly. It is a clear reflection of a broader system – one that criminalises migration, rewards suspicion, and expands enforcement through private tech and public fear. Public officials incite panic. Corporations build the tools. Civilians are enlisted to do the job. Technology is never neutral. It mirrors and amplifies existing power structures. ICERAID does not offer security – it builds a decentralised surveillance regime in which racialised suspicion is monetised and lives are reduced to data. Recognising and resisting this system is not only necessary to protect people on the move. It is essential to the survival of democracy itself. The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance.
Al Jazeera
12 hours ago
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
AI is turning border enforcement in the US into a game
In Arizona's borderlands, the desert is already deadly. People crossing into the United States face blistering heat, dehydration, and exhaustion. But for years, another threat has stalked these routes: Armed vigilante groups who take it upon themselves to police the border – often violently, and outside the law. They have long undermined the work of humanitarian volunteers trying to save lives. Now, a new artificial intelligence platform is actively encouraging more people to join their ranks. recently launched in the United States, offers cryptocurrency rewards to users who upload photos of 'suspicious activity' along the border. It positions civilians as front-line intelligence gatherers – doing the work of law enforcement, but without oversight. The site opens to a map of the United States, dotted with red and green pins marking user-submitted images. Visitors are invited to add their own. A 'Surveillance Guidance' document outlines how to capture images legally in public without a warrant. A 'Breaking News' section shares updates and new partnerships. The platform is fronted by Enrique Tarrio – a first-generation Cuban American, far-right figure and self-styled 'ICE Raid Czar', who describes himself as a 'staunch defender of American values'. I have been researching border surveillance since 2017. Arizona is a place I return to often. I've worked with NGOs and accompanied search-and-rescue teams like Battalion Search and Rescue, led by former US Marine James Holeman, on missions to recover the remains of people who died attempting the crossing. During that time, I've also watched the region become a laboratory for high-tech enforcement: AI towers from an Israeli company now scan the desert; automated licence plate readers track vehicles far inland; and machine-learning algorithms – developed by major tech companies – feed data directly into immigration enforcement systems. This is not unique to the United States. In my book The Walls Have Eyes: Surviving Migration in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, I document how similar technologies are being deployed across Europe and the Middle East – from spyware in Greek refugee camps to predictive border enforcement by the EU's border agency, Frontex. These tools extend surveillance and control. They do not bring accountability or safety. Since Donald Trump's re-election in 2024, these trends have accelerated. Surveillance investment has surged. Private firms have flourished. ICE has expanded its powers to include unlawful raids, detentions and deportations. Military units have been deployed to the US-Mexico border. Now, ICERAID adds a new layer – by outsourcing enforcement to the public. The platform offers crypto rewards to users who upload and verify photographic 'evidence' across eight categories of alleged criminal activity. The more contributions and locations submitted, the more tokens earned. Surveillance becomes gamified. Suspicion becomes a revenue stream. This is especially dangerous in Arizona, where vigilante violence has a long history. Paramilitary-style groups have detained people crossing the border without legal authority, sometimes forcing them back into Mexico. Several people are known to have died in such encounters. ICERAID does not check this behaviour – it normalises it, providing digital tools and financial incentives for civilians to act like enforcers. Even more disturbing is the co-optation of resistance infrastructure. ICERAID's URL, is nearly identical to the website of People Over Papers, a community-led initiative that tracks ICE raids and protects undocumented communities. The similarity is no accident. It is a deliberate move to confuse and undermine grassroots resistance. ICERAID is not an anomaly. It is a clear reflection of a broader system – one that criminalises migration, rewards suspicion, and expands enforcement through private tech and public fear. Public officials incite panic. Corporations build the tools. Civilians are enlisted to do the job. Technology is never neutral. It mirrors and amplifies existing power structures. ICERAID does not offer security – it builds a decentralised surveillance regime in which racialised suspicion is monetised and lives are reduced to data. Recognising and resisting this system is not only necessary to protect people on the move. It is essential to the survival of democracy itself. The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance.
Miami Herald
7 days ago
- Politics
- Miami Herald
A Miami Proud Boy wants us to snitch for the government, Cuba-style
When Enrique Tarrio, the former Proud Boys leader recently pardoned by President Donald Trump, showed up at a 'No Kings' protest in downtown Miami Saturday, he was greeted by chants of 'Send him back to jail' by protesters. But Tarrio wasn't there to make a political statement. He was there to promote an app called ICERAID that encourages users to report undocumented immigrants in exchange for cryptocurrency. He calls it patriotism. It's something far more dangerous. We've seen this tactic before. In 1960, Fidel Castro stood before a euphoric crowd in Havana and announced the creation of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution — los comités — neighborhood watch groups that turned into grassroots informant networks. Their mission: expose Cubans seen as disloyal to the revolution. It was surveillance disguised as civic duty. Over six decades later, those networks still exist. And now, Tarrio — himself the son of Cuban exiles who fled that oppressive system — is championing a digital version. Instead of turning in 'counterrevolutionaries,' the new enemy is the undocumented immigrant. And instead of whispering to secret police, app users upload photos and locations of 'suspects' — and receive crypto as a reward. Until recently, Tarrio was serving a 22-year sentence for his seditious conspiracy conviction for his involvement in organizing the Jan. 6 attack. Now, though, he's dubbed himself the ICERAID czar and aligned himself with the Trump-era playbook of encouraging civilian tip-offs to fuel immigration crackdowns. The app has no official affiliation with the federal government. But it coincides with a troubling Department of Homeland Security campaign featuring a vintage-style Uncle Sam urging Americans to 'Report All Foreign Invaders.' The message is unmistakable: Spy on your neighbors. That's the same message Tarrio is pushing with this app. This is not patriotism. It's vigilantism cloaked in red-white-and-blue. Tarrio — who identifies as as Afro-Cuban, the Herald reported, and grew up in Little Havana — knows that Miami's Cuban exile community was shaped by the trauma of political surveillance and persecution. And yet, here he is, promoting the very thing so many Cuban families fled. In Castro's Cuba, a whisper could ruin a life. In Tarrio's America, a photo upload could mean detention and deportation. In Cuba, informants earned perks and privileges from the government for turning in those who did not support Castro's revolution. Here, it's crypto coins. But the goal is the same: normalize suspicion of one another and persecute and punish the perceived 'other.' What this app is encouraging people to do is not about protecting borders. It's not about law and order. It's about validating people's worst instincts — to profile, to assume guilt, to fuel the Trump administration-sponsored paranoia against immigrants. It doesn't take much imagination to see where this inform-on-your-neighbor fervor inevitably leads. Even ICE officials admits many of the tips they receive today come from jealous exes, spiteful neighbors and professional rivals. An app will only make that worse. All of this, of course, is unfolding against a backdrop of national political tension. Scapegoating immigrants is, once again, politically convenient. But that doesn't make it right; it makes it cruel. When governments — or their proxies like Tarrio — encourage citizens to turn on each other, the casualties aren't just those who are accused. It's democracy itself. Let's not make informing on a neighbor a civic virtue or a patriotic duty. And let's hope this app — and the ideology behind it — is a bust. Click here to send the letter.
Miami Herald
12-06-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
Proud Boy Enrique Tarrio wants you to report undocumented people – and get paid for it
Enrique Tarrio, the former Proud Boys leader from Miami who President Donald Trump pardoned for his participation in the Jan. 6 attack, wants citizens to take deporting undocumented immigrants into their own hands. Literally, he has an app for that. Tarrio has announced he will be the 'czar' of an independent organization that pays people cryptocurrency for reporting undocumented migrants. Enrique Tarrio, who until recently was serving a 22-year sentence for seditious conspiracy charges for his involvement organizing the Jan. 6 attack, promoted a web app called on his X account. The app crowdsources tips to help law enforcement arrest and deport immigrants. The group, while not affiliated with the U.S. government, aims to support the Trump administration's crackdown on immigration. 'I am honored to serve as ICERAID Czar and to lead a platform that empowers Americans to protect our nation's values and security,' said Tarrio in a statement. Tarrio's involvement as a spokesperson for the initiative comes as the Trump administration separately encourages people to report suspected undocumented people to federal authorities. On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security published a vintage-style image featuring Uncle Sam hammering a poster to a wall that said 'Help Your Country…and Yourself…Report All Foreign Invaders' and listed ICE's hotline. 'Help your country locate and arrest illegal aliens,' the agency said in the social media post sharing the image. Immigrants' rights activists and community leaders say they worry that the government's campaign encouraging citizens to report undocumented immigrants will turn communities on each other. They also worry that some individuals will weaponize reports to abuse or intimidate undocumented immigrants in the workplace or in personal relationships. ICE's top investigator in Puerto Rico recently told NPR that tips to her agency have come in from businesses reporting on competition or people outing neighbors and ex-partners. In a press release, ICERAID described Tarrio as a 'staunch defender of American values' who would oversee the app's 'strategic growth, community engagement, and partnerships, ensuring that it remains a beacon of patriotism.' Users will be able to snap photos of people they believe are violating immigration laws and upload them to the platform along with a brief description. Other crimes that can be reported include obstruction of justice, drug trafficking, terrorism, and animal cruelty. The app generates a color coded map where users can see others' reports. The app's website cautions that privacy laws vary state by state and features an extensive guide on surveillance laws — 'for informational purposes only.' It singles out Florida's privacy laws, which require consent to be recorded in private settings. Tarrio said that people who make reports will get paid in a cryptocurrency known as $RAID and that the app will roll out weekly contests so users can get 'bonuses on your bounties.' He also emphasized that people should make reports directly to federal and local authorities, including ICE. 'The more images and locations you upload and validate, the more $RAID you earn,' the ICERaid webpage reads. 'We need to incentivize our citizens to help ICE with these deportations. And this is how you do it,' said Tarrio on a right-wing podcast on Wednesday. The app also says that undocumented immigrants can 'earn a large reward if you pursue a legal status in the United States through self reporting using the ICERAID application.' However, only federal authorities can confer anyone legal immigration status, which the ICERAID webpage acknowledges, as well as that it's not an official government website. Tarrio, who identifies as afro-Cuban, grew up in Little Havana. He was previously the state director of Latinos for Trump in Florida. He was the chairman of the Proud Boys when members of the extremist, white nationalist group stormed the Capitol with other pro-Trump organizations. Several Proud Boys were among the nearly 1,600 people charged or convicted in relation to the Jan. 6 incident. Although Tarrio himself was not in Washington D.C. on Jan. 6, the Department of Justice viewed him as one of the masterminds of the insurrection. In September 2023, he and other Proud Boys were convicted for conspiring to impede Congress from certifying Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential election. In January, Trump issued a sweeping pardon to individuals convicted for criminal charges related to Jan. 6. READ MORE: Enrique Tarrio, sentenced for central role in Jan. 6 plot, is freed by Trump Last week, Tarrio and four other Proud Boys filed a federal lawsuit in Orlando against the Department of Justice and the FBI. The lawsuit claims that the federal government violated their constitutional rights and that their prosecution in the Jan. 6 cases were politically motivated. The men seek $100 million in damages. Now that Tarrio is a free man, he's focused on promoting the citizen policing web app. He spoke extensively about it on the podcast Wednesday, where Barry Ramey, a Proud Boy from Plantation who Trump pardoned for assaulting two officers with pepper spray, joked that the app was 'the conservative version of that Pokemon game that came out years ago.' 'Perfect example. This is like Pokemon,' Tarrio replied, laughing. 'I'll talk to the developers, see if we can get a catch phrase similar to 'Gotta catch them all'.'
