Military-Grade Surveillance Moves to Main Streets
What started as battlefield tech is now watching American streets. U.S. immigration authorities—along with other federal agencies—are quietly expanding their use of facial recognition, AI prediction tools, and drones originally designed for war zones.
The shift hasn’t gone unnoticed. Civil liberties groups are raising alarms about privacy, oversight, and who exactly gets targeted. Undocumented immigrants, sure. But also U.S. citizens going about their lives—or exercising their right to protest.
Take last weekend in Los Angeles. As demonstrators moved through downtown, a drone circled above, tracking everything from vandals to, reportedly, anyone confronting federal agents. Two days later, the Department of Homeland Security posted footage from what appeared to be a Predator drone—the same kind used overseas—showing clips of the unrest.
Who’s Watching, and Why?
“People see a drone and assume the worst,” says Grant Jordan, who runs SkySafe, a company that detects drone activity. “With a helicopter, you know who’s flying it. Drones? No idea. That ambiguity makes people uneasy.”
The Department of Homeland Security and ICE aren’t just using drones, though. They’ve woven AI into nearly every step of immigration enforcement. Some of it’s visible, like cameras. A lot isn’t.
There’s software that predicts whether someone will show up for court. Tools that scrape data from phones. Systems that translate and transcribe intercepted calls. Facial recognition, supposedly limited to identifying victims in exploitation cases—though critics doubt those limits hold.
Efficiency vs. Oversight
Federal agencies argue these tools make their work faster, safer. But civil rights advocates say the real problem is how quietly they’re rolled out.
“We know immigrant communities—especially Black and brown ones—already face heavier policing,” says Citlaly Mora of Just Futures Law. “This tech isn’t neutral. It’s part of a system built to control them.”
The fear isn’t just about deportation. It’s about what happens when surveillance becomes the default. Protesters might hesitate before speaking out. Neighbors might think twice before helping someone targeted by ICE.
Jay Stanley from the ACLU puts it bluntly: “Just because this tech exists doesn’t mean we have to accept it in our backyards.” He pushes for local pushback—city councils saying no to drones, communities demanding transparency.
ICE and DHS didn’t respond to requests for comment. Maybe they were too busy watching.
