The Deadly Digital Frontiers at the Border

Petra Molnar discusses AI surveillance at the border.

"As a lawyer and anthropologist, I have been researching how new technologies are shaping migration. Over the last six years, my work has spanned borders from the U.S.-Mexico corridor to the fringes of Europe to East Africa and beyond. I have witnessed time and time again how technological border violence operates in an ecosystem replete with the criminalization of migration, anti-migrant sentiments, and over-reliance on the private sector in an increasingly lucrative border industrial complex. From vast biometric data collected without consent in refugee camps, to algorithms replacing visa officers and making discriminatory decisions, to AI lie detectors used at borders, the roll out of unregulated technologies is ever-growing. The biggest problem, however, is that the opaque and discretionary world of border enforcement and immigration decision-making is built on societal structures underpinned by intersecting systemic racism and historical discrimination against people migrating, allowing for high-risk technological experimentation to thrive at the border."

Read more in TIME.