Drones For People Not Just Police and Corporations

WASHINGTON – U.S. drone rules are in danger of creating a world in which corporate and government forces seize the technology for themselves and block the public from accessing the technology, according to a new American Civil Liberties Union report out today. Journalists and the public are increasingly using drones to monitor government abuses, including the Trump administration’s efforts to go after immigrants, protestors, and people recording ICE abuses, and this attempt to force transparency has not gone unnoticed by the administration. As the paper details, there has been a marked increase in the Trump administration’s attempts to control what the public does or doesn’t see via drone, with numerous reports of immigration agencies using drones to record people in the streets, while trying to simultaneously block communities from using the technology to monitor the government’s actions. “The Trump administration’s attempts to censor videos and discredit news reporting on its lawless deportation campaign shows the serious consequences of a government that thinks it gets to watch us, but not allow the people to watch the government. That is exactly backwards,” said Jay Stanley, senior policy analyst with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy and Technology Project. “From mapping ICE raids to recording police behavior and photographing abuses, drones are a powerful tool to hold government agencies, law enforcement officials, and big corporations accountable. It’s vital that lawmakers act now to ensure this technology can be used to empower the people, not just further enrich the people in power.” The ACLU examines five areas where drones are starting to tilt power away from the people and the press, including: over-broad security measures; expensive import bans; a removal of local democratic control over how drones are used; the technology’s use for surveillance and intimidation; and the failure to give the public visibility into who is operating drones they see over their homes and communities. It also explains how the Trump administration’s actions are part of a much wider trend within the drone world to make regulatory decisions that give government and corporate interests the privilege to be an eye in the sky. The general consumer might not be thinking about the technology and how access to it impacts our rights, but corporations, law enforcement, and government agencies are highly focused on what this technology can do for them, and are already pressing members of Congress and regulators to build a world that suits them best. To stymie this expanding civil liberties problem, the ACLU also lays out recommendations for policymakers, including: Ensuring that federal government authorities to ban and interdict drones are narrowly defined, include checks and balances against misuse, and offer due process for drone operators who are targeted, while also granting localities wide authority to ban and limit drone flights within their jurisdictions. Enacting privacy rules that apply to commercial drone operators while ensuring that all regulations comport with the First Amendment. Creating an infrastructure that gives members of the public on the ground the ability to identify the operator of any government or corporate drones flying overhead as well as access to information about the operators’ activities and privacy policies. As the paper notes, “Drones can watch us — sometimes closely enough to see the pores on our skin — and we should be able to watch them back.”

How culpable is the company for the constitutional and human rights violations of the deportation drive?

WASHINGTON – This weekend, President Trump threatened to send ICE agents to airports during the Department of Homeland Security partial shutdown, escalating his criticism of Congress for denying a blank check to the agency. “Border czar” Tom Homan has confirmed that the administration is planning to deploy these agents to airports across the country, despite their lack of training for airport security and interactions, and their clear track record of abusing their power, including through using excessive force against citizens and immigrants alike. If this plan proceeds as described by President Trump, it will be the first time a president has sent armed ICE agents to airports to replace trained security agents and instill fear in families and other travelers. DHS, still funded with the $170 billion it received last summer in extra funding, is partially shut down because Congress is demanding meaningful reforms, including an end to indiscriminate stops and racial profiling by ICE, enforceable standards and accountability for violent misconduct by federal agents, and requirements that agents identify themselves and take off their masks. The White House and Congressional majority leadership have refused bipartisan calls to fund TSA and other parts of DHS while negotiations continue over reining in immigration agencies. More than 410,000 people joined the American Civil Liberties Union to send messages to their members of Congress urging them to reject any bill that would fuel ICE and Border Patrol’s lawless operations. Public opinion is firmly against capitulating to further funding for the lawless federal immigration agencies without proper reforms. In response to this news, Naureen Shah, director of policy and government affairs for immigration at the ACLU, issued the following statement: “Never in our history has a president deployed armed agents to the airport to inspire fear among families. The American people don’t want to live in White House advisor Stephen Miller’s dystopian police state. ICE and other federal agents have already shown the cost to us all when the president deploys them on his whim to act as a domestic policing force. Alex Pretti, Renee Good, Keith Porter Jr., Ruben Ray Martinez, and thousands of protestors, journalists, and people across the country have endured the brunt of lawless agents. America’s families travelling to see loved ones should not have to deal with ICE agents who likely have no training or experience with the mission of airport security. “President Trump and his allies in Congress refused to fund TSA and manufactured a crisis at airports across the country. Now, the president apparently wants to use ICE as his private security force, reminding all of us that ICE is not retreating from lawlessness but assigned at will by the president for political retribution. “This is the exact opposite of what the American people are clamoring for, which are real, enforceable changes to rein in ICE and Border Patrol’s cruel deportation and detention obsession.” Those traveling domestically or internationally should know their rights when doing so.

Despite talk of "drones for good" from boosters, we're seeing a new, darker law enforcement “use case” for the technology