he Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) The United States has automatic license plate readers, a technology that is expanding its ability to track vehicles. The system known as Alber By its English abbreviation, it creates a file Huge database With location and movement information for millions of cars in the country.
Immigrant Legal Resource Institute The ILRC warned that this tool Increases the risk of random surveillance They can be used to identify and detain people in irregular immigration status.
This technology, which has also been applied by police departments and law enforcement For several years to combat crimeallows ICE to access information from multiple local agencies, expanding its regional and operational reach.
the Automatic license plate readers (ALPR) are cameras that take pictures of vehicles and record precise data about the time, location and path traveled. This information is stored in databases that may include names, addresses, dates of birth, and criminal records. According to the Immigrant Legal Resources Institute (ILRC), ICE uses these records to locate and arrest immigrants for deportation purposes.
In 2018, ICE leased space for… Thomson Reuters To reach Learn databaseoriginally developed by Vigilant Solutions. This system collects more than five billion records and adds more than 150 million monthly.
Thomson Reuters explains on its official website that DHS and its agencies “turn to Thomson Reuters to support their investigations into… Terrorist activitiesnational and public security issues, drug trafficking, organized crime And transnational gang activities,” explains the company affiliated with the famous news agency Does not perform monitoring duties And that the CLEAR programIt is not designed to conduct mass investigations of illegal immigration Nor to deport unregistered persons nor to deport non-citizens.”
But the ILRC warned in 2021 that through the CLEAR platform, ICE agents could search for information collected by police departments and commercial sources in 47 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
The main concern cited by the ILRC in 2021 is that ICE, according to it, does not always work within formal channels: “In addition to formal agreements, ICE informally requests information from local law enforcement To evade internal control regulations.” According to the institute, these practices allow agents to track not only their targets, but also the migrants’ relatives and contacts.
However, the US Congress website states: “Federal law does not regulate or prohibit specific tools or technologies – such as automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) systems – used by federal law enforcement agencies to support investigations.”
However, the country’s highest legislative body makes it clear that there are policies affecting its use. For example, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) provides “Guidance to Federal Law Enforcement Agencies on the Use of Race, Ethnicity, Sex, National Origin, Religion, Sexual Orientation, or Gender Identity Data, which identifies the types of information that may or may not be used in law enforcement and intelligence activities, including when such activities involve automated systems or artificial intelligence (AI).”
Civic organizations and immigrant rights advocates are developing strategies to demand transparency and limit the use of ALPR. According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, the first step is to request public information about local contracts and policies regulating this technology.
the Federal and state laws It allows citizens to make formal requests to find out how many cameras are operating in their community, what data is stored, and with whom it is shared.
The Institute also encourages the creation of coalitions between activists, lawyers, and organizations working on immigration and privacy issues. These networks seek Strengthen local laws requiring data destruction After a certain period of time, restrict exchanges with federal agencies and prohibit the use of information for immigration purposes or when probation violations are proven.
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