Countering negative narratives with an event that honors interconnectedness and subverts the border in Agua Prieta/Douglas, and a contested hotel--in the heart of the Rio Grande Valley--that is of great importance for Mexican American civil rights.
Mapping Surveillance in Border Communities: A Conversation with Dave Maass
The U.S. government is doubling down on surveillance, but residents have little input or idea of how it impacts their privacy. Maass talks about EFF's new project to map the "virtual wall."
Mapping Surveillance in Border Communities: A Conversation with Dave Maass
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The U.S. government is doubling down and expanding its surveillance technology in border communities. But many residents don’t know the extent to which they’re being watched, given that the government rarely seeks their input.
This month, the nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation released new data and an interactive map of surveillance towers, which are part of the “virtual wall.” Melissa speaks with Dave Maass, EFF’s director of investigations, about his organization’s mapping and data project, which tracks the proliferation of surveillance tech at the southern border.
Contrary to public perception, the majority of these surveillance towers aren’t in the middle of nowhere, says Maass. “We hope to provide the evidence that really undermines that myth,” he says of the new project. “Many of [these towers] are in urban areas, residential communities and in the middle of public parks.”
A vivid depiction of what has been happening during the last eight weeks of resistance against border wall construction in southern Arizona’s San Rafael Valley.
In February, the country broke an ominous record: over 68,000 people were being held in detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, more than ever before.
Border Chronicle founders, Todd and Melissa, talk about how law enforcement surveillance, high-speed chases instigated by Border Patrol, unwarranted searches and seizures, and other heavy-handed policing that border communities have endured for decades has now moved into the interior of the country.