'Raising alarms': Experts concerned as DOGE eyes tracking and surveillance system

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Raw Story

April 18, 2025 8:18PM ET


Tech billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency task force is now jumping into the fight to help with President Donald Trump's mass deportation project, Wired reported on Friday.

"DOGE is knitting together immigration databases from across DHS and uploading data from outside agencies including the Social Security Administration, as well as voting records, sources say. This, experts tell WIRED, could create a system that could later be searched to identify and surveil immigrants," reported Makena Kelly and Vittoria Elliott. "The scale at which DOGE is seeking to interconnect data, including sensitive biometric data, has never been done before, raising alarms with experts who fear it may lead to disastrous privacy violations for citizens, certified foreign workers, and undocumented immigrants."

Part of the object of this project will be to hunt for any evidence that immigrants are illegally voting — a practice which elections experts and data show is very rare, but has been a constant paranoid obsession of the Trump world. American Civil Liberties senior policy counsel Cody Venzke laid out the stakes in dire terms.

“As part of their fixation on this conspiracy theory that undocumented people are voting, they're also pulling in tens of thousands, millions of US citizens who did nothing more than vote or file for Social Security benefits. It's a massive dragnet that's going to have all sorts of downstream consequences for not just undocumented people, but US citizens and people who are entitled to be here as well.”

Read more: https://www.rawstory.com/doge-2671803248/

[Irish_Dem]

1. Surveilling immigrants is just the cover story. We will all be surveilled.

We are turning into Russia and China.

[BumRushDaShow]

2. Actually this country has "been there done that"

With the FBI under the guy who has a building named after him and who was in charge for some 40 years (after which they finally put a term limit on the position - 10 years).

Hell... DU has "Agent Mike"!

[Irish_Dem]

3. Yep. Been there done that. Just resurrecting JEH.

[intrepidity]

8. But *never* with the technology available now

That is a game changer and is terrifying.

[BumRushDaShow]

9. But the concept of "surveillance" of citizens who they deem "undesirable"

has been around for a long time. Before the latest "tech", there was the ubiquitous "wire-tapping" of phones. When we talk about using "burner phones" (cell) today, back in the past, people were using various "pay phones" to try to avoid phone taps. The "tech" has basically reduced the number of people required to surveil someone by letting the (flawed) "tech" try to substitute for that.

[WestMichRad]

4. This is the main objective of DOGE

… IMHO. To make easier their tracking of our every move.

[Firestorm49]

5. "as well as voting records".....Don't think for one minute that this will only effect immigrants.

Once he’s done purging the minorities he’ll start coming after anyone and everyone who didn’t vote for him, or have sexual preferences that go against him, or ……..This is a much bigger issue than it initially appears.

We’re in for ten to fifteen years of fear, anxiety, insecurity, and rage before this mess comes to an end. Optimism preferred, the reality of his dictatorship doesn’t look like it will end anytime soon. He’ll rig the elections, put fear into those who don’t support him, and completely change American life as we knew it.

Violent overthrow? Who knows. Relying on an increasingly questionable election process? Who knows. We can all hope for a bright sunny day. We can try our best to counter a life changing political landscape, but the grim reality is staring us in the face.

When challenged, he often backs down, for as we all know, he’s a master at throwing shit on the wall and hoping that it sticks. Blue states need to confront him. If he can ignore the laws that govern society by ignoring court orders, so can we. Corporations need to confront him. Donors need to confront him. The citizenry needs to protest peacefully enmasse. Churches need to disown him. Republican representatives need to be converted to sane thinking - and there may actually be a few already. The police and military have to take their oath to the Constitution seriously (good luck with that one). Foreign leaders need to stand up to him and not be bullied by a guy who needs great big color pictures to understand a topic.

The process will be complicated and all encompassing but it can be done and hopefully without bloodshed.

His plans are still being revealed and implemented at a rapid pace. We need to counter at an equal pace and try as we may not to lose ground.

[yellow dahlia]

10. Sends chills down my spine....and makes me sick to my stomach.

[progree]

6. You might have seen the Mother Jones article about Clearview

May-June issue
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/04/clearview-ai-immigration-ice-fbi-surveillance-facial-recognition-hoan-ton-that-hal-lambert-trump/

The Shocking Far-Right Agenda Behind the Facial Recognition Tech Used by ICE and the FBI
Thousands of newly obtained documents show that Clearview AI’s founders always intended to target immigrants and the political left. Now their digital dragnet is in the hands of the Trump administration.

[BumRushDaShow]

7. I do sub to Mother Jones and they often send out emails highlighting their articles

so will need to check it out as that is from their latest issue (didn't get an email on it yet)...

There has been a lot of push-back in general for any "facial recognition" software because the "hit rate" has been horrible.

[yellow dahlia]

11. Thanks for sharing. Yikes!

[wolfie001]

12. Here's something the douche doge-bags can keep track of

[hueymahl]

13. We have unfortunately been unlawfully surveilling our citizens for a long time

As shown by numerous whistleblowers, such as Snowden. These latests steps are a dangerous escalation.

[LudwigPastorius]

15. Total Information Awareness 2.0