The Assault on Freedom of Speech Has Begun at the Border

Last August Free Press wrote about a new rule that allows Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) greater leeway to check the social media accounts of certain visitors as they enter the United States. The rule added a section on social media information to the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) for visitors traveling from countries that don’t necessarily require a visa to visit the United States. In the wake of President Trump’s ban, new Homeland Security Secretary Gen Kelly stated that “extreme vetting” of immigrants and visitors may now include an examination of their phone contacts, web histories and social media profiles before they’re allowed to enter the United States.

At Free Press we’re aware that aggressive policing and surveillance tools like stingrays, dragnet phone-records collection, and facial recognition are first deployed against marginalized or immigrant communities prior to their inevitable use on the American public at large. It’s a huge problem for people of color in particular, and for civil liberties across the board, when so-called “targeted” surveillance is nothing but an unlawful fishing expedition to collect data on millions of people’s movements, associates, political views and religious beliefs.