Immigration
Latest
UK bill would ban videos portraying Channel immigrant crossings in a 'positive light'
The UK is amending a bill to ban videos portraying Channel immigrant crossings in a 'positive light.'
Facebook settles with Justice Department over H-1B hiring practices
Facebook has reached separate settlements with the Department of Justice and Department of Labor over its hiring practices related to foreign workers.
Google fronts Big Tech legal fight to preserve visas for immigrant spouses
Google has submitted an amicus brief signed by almost 30 tech companies urging for the preservation of work rights for the spouses of H1-B visa holders.
Civil rights groups demand CBP stops facial recognition expansion at airports
The ACLU, Electronic Frontier Foundation and others objected to a proposed rule change.
Justice Department sues Facebook over H-1B hiring practices
The Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against Facebook over its hiring practices for foreign workers.
Infinity Ward tries to make its ‘Call of Duty’ Border War skin less offensive
'Call of Duty' developer Infinity Ward changed the name of 'Modern Warfare' and 'Warzone’s' Border War skin to Home on the Range.
Supreme Court rejects Trump's attempt to end DACA
The US Supreme Court rejected Trump's attempt to dissolve DACA, immigrant protections supported by tech CEOs.
Federal agencies reportedly bought phone location data to track immigrants
Since at least 2017, the US federal government has been buying commercially-available cellphone location data to aid in immigration and border-related enforcement actions, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. The data is the type of anonymized location information that analytics firms typically sell to digital advertisers so that they target specific consumers. In other words, it's information most people consent to sharing every time they install a new app on their phone.
Recommended Reading: The ICE surveillance playbook
How ICE picks its targets in the surveillance age McKenzie Funk, The New York Times Through the lens of officers operating in the Pacific Northwest, The New York Times explains how Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) collects information on possible targets. That includes monitoring social media accounts and tapping into "the world's largest privately run database of license-plate scans."
Tim Cook disputes Trump immigration policy in Supreme Court filing
Apple chief Tim Cook hasn't been shy on where he and his company stand on immigration, but he's making it more official today. The tech firm, which named Cook and retail exc Deirdre O'Brien, has filed an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief with the US Supreme Court defending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program against the Trump administration's effort to tear it down. Cook and Apple contended that it was legally and morally wrong to threaten deportation for people who had followed US policy and sought a legal path to staying in the country. "Who are was a country if we renege?" Apple asked.
Homeland Security details social media collection from immigrants
The Department of Homeland Security has explained how it will demand social media info from asylum from newcomers to the US beyond visa applicants. A notice in the Federal Register makes clear that officials will ask for social network data in seven forms that asylum seekers, immigrants, refugees and "inadmissable aliens" must fill to be allowed into the country, whether temporarily or permanently. They'll have to provide five years' worth of usernames if they've used any of the same 19 sites that fall under the visa checks, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Chinese sites like Douban and Weibo.
Harvard student deported based on friends' social media posts
If you thought the US' decision to screen social network posts for visa applicants risked giving innocent people the boot, you guessed correctly. US officials have deported new Harvard student Ismail Ajjawi not based on his own posts, but those on his friends list. While he said he avoided politics in his own posts, some of his contacts reportedly expressed "points of view that oppose the US." It didn't matter that he didn't interact with them -- Customs and Border Protection promptly cancelled his visa while he was still in the airport for questioning.
Air travelers entering US face long delays as CBP computers crash
Air travellers entering the US were delayed on Friday after a computer issue prevented customs officials from processing their immigration information. The CBP is reportedly investigating the problem but have yet to identify the cause.
A popular immigration bill is bad news for US esports
"What makes me nervous is the fact that it just sailed through the House." Genie Doi is an immigration lawyer with Electronic Sports and Gaming Law, an esports-specific law firm in Los Angeles. She's talking about S.386, or the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act, which passed the House in July by 300 votes. Representatives even waived some of the voting rules with a process reserved to pass noncontroversial bills.
US now requires social media info for visa applications
If you want to stay in the US, you'll likely have to share your internet presence. As proposed in March 2018 (and to some extent in 2015), the country now requires virtually all visa applicants to provide their social media account names for the past five years. The mandate only covers a list of selected services, although potential visitors and residents can volunteer info if they belong to social sites that aren't mentioned in the form.
PayPal and GoFundMe cut off donations to militia detaining migrants
Crowdfunding and payment companies are no strangers to cutting off access to organizations that violate their policies, but their latest move could be more contentious than usual. PayPal and GoFundMe have confirmed to BuzzFeed News that they've shut down fundraising campaigns for the United Constitutional Patriots, a right-wing militia group in New Mexico that has been detaining migrants at the border with Mexico despite doubts about its legal authority. The sites claim that UCP has violated their policies barring support for hate or violence, in one case allegedly using funds to buy guns.
Dozens of law enforcement agencies are helping ICE track cars
More than 9,200 Immigration and Customs Enforcement employees have access to a license plate database that allows authorities to track the movement of vehicles over time. The American Civil Liberties Union says more than 80 law enforcement agencies across several states are sharing license plate details with ICE, which purportedly doesn't have sufficient safeguards to prevent abuse.
ACLU sues US government over social media surveillance of immigrants
The ACLU has sued the federal government, naming the Department of Justice, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, ICE, US Customs and Border Protection, US Citizenship and Immigration Services and the State Department as defendants. The civil rights organization is seeking information regarding the government's practice of monitoring immigrants' and visa applicants' social media accounts, information that it says these agencies have been withholding.
Now is the time to start thinking about AI’s impact on xenophobia
As the Trump administration continues to advance its hardline stance towards immigration, legal or otherwise, businesses are increasingly turning to automation and robotics to fill jobs previously held by humans. However, these thinking machines are not without drawbacks. AI development has long been beset by issues of intrinsic training bias, if not outright racist and xenophobic behavior. Take Microsoft's aborted social media bots Tay and Zo, for example, or Amazon's questionably-designed facial recognition system. However this relationship is not unidirectional -- AI can impact the expression of xenophobic ideas just as xenophobic practices can impact the rate of AI development. Which begs the question, how can we decouple the benefits that AI promises to provide from the negative consequences we're already witnessing?
'Life is Strange 2' deals with brotherhood in the face of death
Life is Strange 2 begins with a bleak bang. Developer Dontnod shared the game's first 20 minutes this week on YouTube, introducing series fans to the Diaz family before diving straight into a chaotic, violent scene that sets the stage for the rest of the five-episode season. This article contains spoilers for the first 20 minutes of Life is Strange 2
