By Jay Stanley, Senior Policy Analyst, ACLU Speech, Privacy and Technology Project at 12:15pm
(Updated below)
LA Weekly has published an investigative report on the use of License Plate Scanners in Southern California. In addition to reporting that the rapid embrace of the technology by local law enforcement has led to “one of the most densely concentrated license plate recognition systems in the United States,” the article includes this signficant piece of news:
The ACLU of New Mexico will be featured tonight on PBS’ Need to Know.
In partnership with the Investigative Fund of the Nation Institute, Need to Know investigates whether U.S. border agents have been using excessive force in an effort to curb illegal immigration. Eight people have been killed along the border in the past two years. One man died a short time after being beaten and tased, an event recorded by two eyewitnesses whose video is the centerpiece of the report. Both eyewitnesses say the man offered little or no resistance. One told Need to Know that she felt like she watched someone being “murdered,” and the San Diego coroner’s office classified the death as a “homicide.”
If most employers learned that their employees had been falling asleep on the job out of sheer boredom, the last thing they would do is hire more people to do the same work. That, however, is just what U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has done in recent years — as spending continues to balloon in spite of a dramatic decrease in the number of apprehensions along the border.
Today, the House Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee will hold a hearing on a proposed budget for CBP in 2013, featuring testimony from Michael Fisher, Border Patrol chief, and several CBP assistant commissioners. Unfortunately, the Department of Homeland Security's 2013 budget request continues down the same path of excessive, wasteful spending that has characterized the last decade.
By Nusrat Choudhury, Staff Attorney, ACLU National Security Project at 11:23am
In February 2010, Lawrence Ho sought to return home to the United States after attending a conference in Canada. At the border crossing at Rainbow Bridge in New York, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers asked Mr. Ho, an American Muslim convert, "When did you become a Muslim?", "Which mosques do you attend?" and "How often do you attend the mosque?"
Last May, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents searched and took Pascal Abidor's laptop and external hard drive when he was returning home to New York City from Montreal, Canada, where he attends graduate school. When his laptop and hard drive were returned to him 11 days later, Abidor discovered agents had opened numerous files, including personal photographs, a transcript of a chat with his girlfriend, copies of email correspondence, class notes, journal articles, tax returns, his graduate school transcript, and his resume.
