U.S. Immigration Agency Using Drones Capable of Surveillance During L.A. Protests
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is using drones during the protests in Los Angeles, the department has confirmed, further fueling controversy surrounding the escalating law enforcement response to the demonstrations that broke out as immigration raids occurred throughout the city.
Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), an agency within DHS, confirmed on Thursday that it is providing 'aerial support' to law enforcement.
"Air and Marine Operations (AMO) is providing aerial support to federal law enforcement partners conducting operations in the Greater Los Angeles area. AMO's efforts are focused on situational awareness and officer safety support as requested,' a CBP spokesperson told TIME via email.
DHS shared footage of the protests shot with a drone on social media earlier in the week.
'WATCH: DHS drone footage of LA rioters,' the department wrote via an X post on June 10, which included video of cars burning and an apparent explosion accompanied by sinister music. 'California politicians must call off their rioting mob.'
The protests in Los Angeles have been predominantly peaceful as they enter their seventh day, media on the ground has reported, though some have escalated as cars have been set on fire and projectiles have been thrown.
Despite that, President Donald Trump has deployed thousands of National Guard members and is mobilizing hundreds of Marines to the area, against the wishes of state and local leaders. Local law enforcement has also used crowd control tactics such as rubber bullets and tear gas, and Mayor Karen Bass has declared a state of 'local emergency' and imposed an ongoing 8 p.m. to 6 p.m. curfew.
Since the protests began on Friday, more than 160 people have been arrested by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). The majority of those arrests, according to the New York Times, occurred on Monday, and a majority of them were based on failure to disperse charges.
CBP confirmed to 404 media that the drones used by the agency were two Predator drones after the media company reported that drones were spotted flying without call signs where the anti-ICE protests were occurring.
Does DHS have the authority to use drones?
Department of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth addressed reports of the drones in a June 11 hearing with Congress. Rhode Island Senator Jack Reed asked Hegseth if he was prepared for DHS to use drones to 'to detain or arrest American citizens.'
'Every authorization we've provided the National Guard and the Marines in Los Angeles is under the authority of the President of the United States,' Hegseth answered.
According to Alejandra Montoya-Boyer, senior director of the Center for Civil Rights & Technology at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, tech groups and civil rights groups alike are "surprised and deeply concerned' by the use of drones, but it is not "necessarily new.'
'CBP has a pretty expansive opportunity to be able to deploy drone technology and other technologies that are able to surveil and track anyone, whether they're crossing the border or in these spaces,' Montoya-Boyer tells TIME. She says 'this isn't necessarily the first time we're seeing this,' but noted that it could still be harmful and 'disproportionately impacting communities of color and immigrants right now.'
She says people are often unaware of the extent of land that CBP has access to—100 air miles from any external boundary of the U.S, a border zone that almost two-thirds of the U.S. population lives within.
Montoya-Boyer says that the technology used by these drones was created to track border crossings, not to be used to track U.S. citizens at protests.
'The reality is, with the development of these types of technologies, and with appropriations by CBP and DHS, they can be used for domestic surveillance and as needed by an administration that isn't necessarily doing what's usual,' she says.
Though the CBP has stated that the drones are focused on 'situational awareness' and 'officer safety,' Montoyta-Boyers says there 'is no reason for us to believe that it is just in the name of law and order' as 'there is an increase, an expansion of surveillance technologies in the name of immigration enforcement being deployed all across the country on the majority of people, whether they're immigrants or not
She recommends those who decide to lawfully and peacefully protest to access both the ACLU 's and Electronic Frontier Foundation 's guides to what protestors' rights are.
Have drones been used during previous U.S. protests?
This is not the first time that drones have been used during U.S. protests in support of law enforcement efforts.
Back in 2020, CBP utilized drones at the height of protests in the Black Lives Matter movement spurred by the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. At the time, however, CBP argued that its drones were not being used to 'surveil' protestors, but rather to provide 'assistance to state and locals so they could make sure that their cities and their towns were protected,' according to Acting CBP Commissioner Mark Morgan in a 2020 interview with ABC News.
"We were not providing any resources to surveil lawful peaceful protesters. That's not what we were doing," he said. 'We weren't taking any information on law-abiding protesters, but we were absolutely there to ensure the safety of folks there as well as to enforce, and make sure law and order remain.'
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