Latest news with #EnriqueTarrio
RNZ News
07-07-2025
- Politics
- RNZ News
How are designated terrorist entities selected in New Zealand? Here's what you need to know
Stewart Rhodes, Enrique Tarrio, Joe Biggs and Zach Rehl, members of the far-right group the Proud Boys, rally outside the US Capitol following a news conference on 21 February 2025 in Washington, DC. The Proud Boys are no longer designated as a terrorist entity in New Zealand after being named such in 2022. Photo: CHIP SOMODEVILLA / AFP Explainer - Who are the terrorist groups listed under New Zealand law, and who decides who names them? With news last week that the American far-right group the Proud Boys had been removed from the terrorist entity list , there are questions about exactly how such a designation works. Here's what you need to know about how terrorist entities are designated in New Zealand. A designated terrorist entity decision is made by the government against groups or individuals known for violent actions. Once an entity is on the list, it greatly restricts their financial activities, participation and efforts to recruit new members. John Battersby is a specialist on terrorism and counter-terrorism and a teaching fellow in the Centre for Defence and Security Studies at Massey University. Entities can end up on the list "broadly speaking, if an individual or group is active in perpetrating terrorist acts, and are internationally recognised as doing so," he said. This includes groups designated by the United Nations, "as well as any which the NZ prime minister (acting on advice) has 'good cause to suspect' have participated in committing a terrorist act". There are basically two kinds of terrorist entities - ones that are listed by the United Nations which New Zealand is obliged to include, and ones that New Zealand has designated on its own. New Zealand has international counterterrorism obligations under a number of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolutions. These came after the Terrorism Suppression Act 2002 was passed, following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States. That act established a legal framework for the suppression of terrorism. Those on the UN list also on New Zealand's list include the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Da'esh), Al-Qaida, the Taliban and associated individuals, groups, undertakings and entities. The second set of entities designated in New Zealand are associated with UN Security Council Resolution 1373 which obliges us to outlaw the financing of, participation in and recruitment to terrorist entities. The UN's resolution leaves it to member states to identify the entities against which they should act. The New Zealand-designated group includes groups such as the Houthis, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Real Irish Republican Army and The Shining Path. The only individual listed is the convicted Christchurch mosque shooter. "Designating the offender is an important demonstration of New Zealand's condemnation of terrorism and violent extremism in all forms," former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said in making that call in 2020 . A policeman patrols at Al Noor Mosque in Christchurch on March 23, 2019, eight days after a terrorist attack claimed the lives of 50 people. Photo: AFP Once a group is on the list, it means it freezes their assets in New Zealand and it's illegal to deal with the entity's property or provide such an entity with property, financial or related services. It is also an offence to knowingly recruit for a group on the list, or participate in a group for the purpose of enhancing its ability to carry out a terrorist act, knowing, or being reckless as to whether the group is a designated entity. Action can be taken against designated entities' property, and Customs can seize and detain goods or cash they have "good cause" to suspect are tied to designated entities. However, "simple membership of a designated entity is not an offence," police say. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon. Photo: Screenshot Ultimately, the prime minister has the power. "The Prime Minister may designate an entity as a terrorist entity under this section if the Prime Minister believes on reasonable grounds that the entity has knowingly carried out, or has knowingly participated in the carrying out of, one or more terrorist acts," the Terrorism Suppression Act 2002 says. However, there's a lot of support and intelligence given before making that call. A Terrorist Designation Working Group chaired by New Zealand Police does the work of considering entities. It includes officials from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, the National Assessments Bureau, the New Zealand Defence Force, Crown Law, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service. The working group then refers their information to the National Security Board, who make a determination whether or not to proceed with forwarding a recommendation to the prime minister. The prime minister also has to consult the Attorney-General before making the designation. Letters of recommendation are then given to the Commissioner of Police to be acted upon. "No specific factors are identified for the Prime Minister's consideration when exercising his discretion," police say. For example, in November Prime Minister Christopher Luxon designated the armed and political group Hezbollah a terrorist entity . "For any organisation [to be designated] ... we have to have evidence and we go through a number of tests under our legislation, that that organisation has knowingly undertaken terrorist activity," Luxon said then. "It's a standard process." Any entity on the list or a third party can also apply to the prime minister to make a case to get the designation revoked. Of course, whether or not that happens is up to the government to decide. The designations on the list are made for a period of three years, and can simply expire if not renewed. Judicial reviews of the decisions are also possible, police say. Leaders of the Proud Boys, a right-wing pro-Trump group, Enrique Tarrio (right) and Joe Biggs (left) embrace each other as the Proud boys members gather with their allies in a rally called "End Domestic Terrorism" against Antifa in Portland, Oregon on 26 September, 2020. Photo: AFP / John Rudoff / Anadolu Agency The government's New Zealand Gazette notification on the Proud Boys delisting is extremely brief - it simply says their designation expired on 19 June, and any person who deals with the property of the group cannot be prosecuted under the Terrorism Suppression Act. Ardern designated the Proud Boys and another known white supremacist group, The Base, in June 2022. The Base designation was renewed in June and remains on the terrorist entity list, but the Proud Boys no longer do. Byron Clark, a researcher into right-wing extremist groups , pointed out that US President Donald Trump pardoned the group's leader Enrique Tarrio earlier this year along with many others involved in the 6 January 2021 Capitol riot. "They operate as an unofficial, but tacitly acknowledged, militant wing of Trump's Make America Great Again movement, and I think that makes it politically more difficult to designate them terrorists now that that movement holds power in the United States." Battersby agreed the changing political situation in the US may have played part in the expiration. "If 'the good cause to suspect' case against the Proud Boys and The Base was founded on convictions following the 2021 US Capitol Hill riot, the presidential pardons - from a legal perspective - could remove those grounds." The prime minister's office told Stuff journalist Paula Penfold, who has extensively investigated the Proud Boys, that the group "remain on the radar ... and if any new information comes to hand, they will consider it." There is also a separate terror watch list of individuals the New Zealand Security and Intelligence Service keeps. In the past that list has been reported to be around 30 to 40 individuals. "Most people on watchlists turn out to be incapable or unwilling to do any real damage," Battersby said, but noted "it's excellent that police and the NZSIS pay attention to suspect individuals, this is valuable and necessary work." Ahamed Samsudeen took a knife from a supermarket shelf and stabbed six people in 2021. Photo: Supplied "New Zealand isn't safe - we have never been safe," Battersby said. "We have been fortunate in that we are politically insignificant globally - so no international terrorist group will waste any time here, and that anyone in New Zealand who has actually wanted to undertake acts of political violence has been mostly isolated and alone, largely unsuccessful inspiring any successive action." "Watchlists are one tool - they will catch the careless, lazy and unlucky; it is much more difficult to intercept a security conscious, careful planner (or group) which keep their heads down, or who play along legally (as the mosque shooter did) looking to exploit vulnerabilities which frankly exist everywhere." Battersby noted that both the Christchurch mosque shooter and Ahamed Samsudeen , who attacked shoppers at Auckland's LynnMall in 2021, were lone actors. "These people represent singular acts, so designation - in my opinion, is a largely unproductive exercise." Samsudeen had been under scrutiny for some time yet was still able to pull off his attack, while the mosque shooter "demonstrated what is possible when the risk is not identified," he said. "I think government terrorist group lists have some significant limitations," Clark said. "The Christchurch terrorist communicated extensively with far-right groups around the world, and even supported some financially, but wasn't formally a member of any, and the LynnMall terrorist was Isis-inspired but not actually a member of the organisation." Clark said it is still important that groups of concern in New Zealand continue to be monitored. "I do think there needs to be more scrutiny on far-right and Christian nationalist groups, the recent demonstrations by Destiny Church members targeting numerous minority groups demonstrate the threat they pose to social cohesion." Clark said that that last year's defunding of research into violent extremism research being done at the He Whenua Taurikura research centre in Wellington was also troubling. "The defunding of He Whenua Taurikura means we've lost the other side of counter terrorism, which is researching these groups and their beliefs in order to have a more informed public, and greater awareness of where potential threats could come from. Less of that work is being done now, and I don't think adding more groups to terrorist designation lists could make up for that loss." Still, New Zealand remains less vulnerable to terrorism than many places, Battersby said. "It is important to keep all of this in perspective, however - terrorists or violent extremists pose a risk, but a very small one in statistical terms when you consider something like our road toll. The most dangerous thing you will do today is drive to work, and drive home again - you are vastly more likely to be killed doing that, than you ever will be by a terrorist in New Zealand." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Yahoo
29-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
ICERaid: The App That Asks You To Report Illegal Immigrants For Crypto
A new app dares to pose a question that nobody has thought to ask: what happens when you combine right-wing fervor over hunting down undocumented immigrants, cryptocurrency speculation, and Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio? It's called ICERaid, and the idea behind it is either ingeniously simple in its pitch for civic engagement or nauseating in its wicked opportunism, depending on your bent: the app offers users tokens of the $RAID digital currency in exchange for taking pictures of undocumented immigrants and submitting them to the app. ICERaid claims that it will then provide the photos to law enforcement, supposedly incentivizing users to contribute to the MAGA project of rooting out undocumented immigrants while watching the coins they receive spike in value. Like many other projects in cryptocurrency, the point is at least partly to attract attention — either through riding off news topics or by creating an app weird and sinister enough to generate explosively negative headlines — thereby drawing in more users. That's not unusual for novel crypto coins. They're speculative assets that often thrive on persuading large numbers of people to buy in. It's why figures including the Trumps and Elon Musk can so easily gain such a powerful footing in the space: they generate gargantuan amounts of attention. What makes ICERaid different is that it combines the desire to see the value number go up that's core to the appeal of so many crypto projects with Stalin-style denunciations. In this case, the pitch is that reporting an undocumented immigrant could earn you cash. It's the speculative rush around crypto combined with the fundamental authoritarian impulse: bringing your neighbors into line and getting the state to act against them. The more people that ICERaid users report, the more cryptocurrency they receive in return, should the app validate the targets. There's a fixed number of coins that the company has issued; as reports come in to ICERaid and are validated, demand increases, in theoretically raising the price. In the world of ICERaid, this is all part of a vision called 'GovFi': instead of the state providing a service, like law enforcement, it will devolve to citizens incentivized to participate through crypto. Think quasi-organized vigilantism, on the blockchain. Earlier this month, Enrique Tarrio, the Proud Boys leader, said that he had signed on as 'czar' for the project. The idea has been promoted over the past several months by a man named Jason M. Meyers, a former stockbrocker who has spent the past several years working on various cryptocurrency projects. One Securities and Exchange Commission document suggests that he even met with SEC officials this month for one initiative. Meyers brought a complicated past to ICERaid. In 2014, he consented to a ban from the financial services industry in a letter agreement with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). Meyers neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing in the letter, which detailed allegations that he misappropriated at least $700,000 from investors. TPM asked Meyers about the allegations, and why people should trust him with their money via the crypto venture. 'They're not trusting me, they're trusting Enrique,' Meyers replied. Meyers told TPM during a phone interview earlier this month that he came up with the idea for ICERaid after having 'suffered from immigration fraud.' He declined to specify what that meant, saying that 'it's something I'd like to forget.' Answering the question of someone's legal residency status can be extremely complicated, and requires access to government databases and knowledge of visa and other status arrangements that have shifted week-by-week under the Trump administration. ICERaid casts itself as using AI as a kind of deus ex machina to allow everyday citizens to solve that problem. AI, Meyers told TPM, then performs 'validations' of photos that users submit. He declined to specify how that worked. ICERaid plans to make the data it collects available to law enforcement, Meyers added. The app holds space for reporting other forms of wrongdoing that carry vaguely political connotations, not only immigration. As Tarrio put it on a podcast appearance this month, ICERaid 'allows you to report illegal immigrants and other crimes, obstruction, assaults on the police officers, looting, rioting, and things like that.' ICERaid has gone even further in exploring 'use cases' where people can cash in through denunciations. On Instagram, ICERaid invited users to report liberal judges in controversial cases, singling out Chief D.C. Judge James Boasberg for his handling of the administration's removals under the Alien Enemies Act and suggesting he was a candidate to be reported for 'terrorism' or 'obstruction.' The app requires users to take photos of suspects. ICERaid advised users in an Instagram video to go to federal court in a 'blue state' and 'secretly snap a photo of the judge. Don't let the bailiff see you.' Marketing this requires a certain deranged finesse: being as wanton as possible in promotion, while also making sure to tie it to the news of the day. In response to a post from ICERaid's X account about NYC comptroller Brad Lander being detained by ICE, Tarrio wrote of ICERaid: 'this is what it's built for.' It's unclear how the app works to 'validate' any of this. Per Meyers, the app's validation procedure works as a filter: not just any photo of a suspected undocumented immigrant, liberal judge, or NYC mayoral candidate will do. It has to pass an ICERaid in-app test. This system will, according to a post on the app's website, be ready later in the summer: 'evidence validator deployment' is scheduled for August, it says. Meyers told TPM that users have to submit photos tagged to the location at which they were taken. Once the app verifies the location that the photo was taken, it then 'profiles the suspect' and 'gauges sentiment.' TPM pressed Meyers about how any of this is supposed to work. 'I'm not on the tech side, I can't articulate it to you,' he said. Focusing on the ins and outs of how the app 'profiles suspects' raises a host of privacy concerns. But it also partly misses the point. As Tarrio said in a June 11 episode of his Lords of War podcast alongside another Proud Boy member, the purpose is growth. In his words, he wants $RAID, the cryptocurrency earned by users of the app, to 'become as big as, uh, as the Federal Reserve.' On the same podcast, the co-host, Barry Ramey, compared the app to Pokémon Go: 'Basically this is like the conservative version of that Pokémon game that came out years ago.' Meyers described Tarrio's role in similar terms, saying that he can effectively raise awareness and that the app 'fits with his ideals.' 'He has the network of people that would use it,' Meyers said. 'He has the following.' TPM asked if Meyers had the Proud Boys in mind when referring to Tarrio's 'network'; Meyers said he did not. Tarrio did not reply to request for comment from TPM. But the basic reality is that growing the user base will increase the value of the coin. As of this writing, the value is relatively small: one $RAID token goes for $0.0009157. When TPM asked if Tarrio and Meyers hold the token, ICERaid replied that tokens are 'allocated across all team members, key opinion leaders and campaign contributions, all of which is subject to equal daily vesting until January 19, 2029.' A coin with a very low price and audacious plans to attract attention is consistent with how many memecoins operate, Omid Malekan, a professor at Columbia Business School who teaches a class on Blockchain, told TPM. Malekan is a supporter of the crypto industry, but has been an outspoken critic of memecoins. What marks them out from the rest of the industry, Malekan said, is the lack of pretense to any kind of utility. 'Unless you figure out a way to create some kind of a lasting source of value for the token, the whole thing's gonna fall apart, and it is just a memecoin,' Malekan said. 'And to me, memecoins are effectively just pumps and dumps.' He added that memecoins are often focused on generating massive amounts of public awareness out of a belief that 'the attention is, in and of itself, a valuable thing.' There's a whole ecosystem here: some memecoins exist entirely on the popularity of an associated phrase: Let's Go Brandon, the anti-Joe Biden slogan, picked up a memecoin of the same name. But other species of memecoin can have associated apps, Malekan said, which propose a veneer of utility. 'They'll say, 'well, the utility is the app,' but no. You're putting the cart before the horse — people get the app because they want to get more of the coin,' Malekan said. ICERaid's model holds out the prospect of crypto riches in exchange for using the app to report people. ICERaid has denied that it's a memecoin, describing itself as 'a #web3 app that enables citizens to crowdsource and verify 8 categories of criminal evidence.' Still, the community around the app is intently focused on causing a dramatic rise in the value of $RAID. TPM reviewed chats from a Telegram group named after ICERaid and focused on discussing the coin. One user, JSON Meyers, features a profile picture that Meyers has used elsewhere on the internet, and appears to speak for the app in the chats. The account is linked to posts promoting other ventures in which Meyers is involved. Last month, the Meyers account and others began discussing a purchase of nearly 50,000 units of $RAID. The Meyers account celebrated with a 'WOOT WOOT!!!' before advising users that they should buy more of the coin once it is released — 'ONLY when it hits $1B cap.' After another Telegram user replied dismissively with 'my ass,' the Meyers account, which describes itself as 'border czar,' shot back: 'That's how human nature works.' The account then posed a rhetorical question: 'What's the difference between a pair of designer jeans and a token?' 'Nothing,' the Meyers account wrote. 'The difference is in the mind of the buyer. The jeans trigger a level of mental acceptance that the value will be derived from wearing them. Not from a rise in price. Whereas the token triggers the mental prospect of escaping at a higher price, therefore experiencing a profit.' The exact nature of Meyers's ties to ICERaid and whether he has any formal role are unclear. During an early June interview with TPM, Meyers said that he was promoting ICERaid, and discussed having created it at one point. TPM could not identify any corporate records that reflect ICERaid's existence. ICERaid's website domain registration is mostly obscured, apart from saying that its registrant is based in Zug, Switzerland. In podcast interviews, Meyers has been introduced as the 'creator' of ICERaid. But like much of the rest of ICERaid's structure, the responses that the company and people associated with it gave to TPM were murky. This week, Meyers directed TPM via text to an ICERaid email address for 'media.' A response from the email address disavowed any affiliation with Meyers: 'Jason currently has no official role with ICERAID. It was announced that Enrique took over the role as ICERaid Czar.' The email also asked TPM to make clear that while there are many cryptotokens called 'Raid,' theirs is different. Per the address that ICERaid provided, there are 150 holders of the token as of this writing. TPM was able to establish some evidence of a link between Meyers and another cryptocurrency firm: Auditchain Labs AG, based in Zug, Switzerland. That company describes Meyers on its website as 'lead architect' and says that he's the developer of another crypto project called A review of Auditchain Labs AG's Swiss corporate records did not show any mention of Meyers. He does appear in the records of another Zug-based company called 'Auditchain GMBH in Liquidation.' Swiss corporate records list Meyers as a member of Auditchain GMBH in Liquidation's executive board, and say that he has signing authority. A Delaware LLC called Auditchain USA Inc. is also listed as a member of the company. TPM reviewed a federal lawsuit in which Meyers said that he had served as an interim CEO of Auditchain USA Inc. If you keep pulling these threads, it can feel like they each lead towards a thousand other spools of string. Take the crypto project for which Meyers is described as the 'lead architect.' An SEC document records Meyers as having met with the Trump administration's Crypto Task Force on June 2. Per the document, the group discussed Pacioli's potential use in 'externally validat[ing]' corporate financial disclosures. There's yet another lead: searching 'Auditchain' and 'ICERaid' on Google leads to a result with a cached summary that claims Auditchain develops ICERaid. Clicking through to the current version of the page leads to a Medium post that makes no such claim. In March, the Meyers account wrote that Auditchain Labs developed ICERaid in the Telegram chat. But to TPM, Meyers texted: 'Auditchain and ICERaid are not affiliated.' When TPM followed up on the question at ICERaid's 'media' email address, the response was the same: 'There is no affiliation with Auditchain.' The experience of reviewing all of this starts to resemble watching a shell game. It's slippery. Is Meyers really a creator? What does that even mean when it comes to an app or token? It's unclear. The FINRA letter, signed in 2014, says that Meyers misappropriated more than $700,000 in investor funds. He never told investors that at least some of the funds would go to 'personal medical expenses, cash withdrawals, payments to a charity for which Meyers was a board member, international travel, concert and movie tickets,' per the document. Meyers, the document said, agreed to be barred from the financial services industry — I.e, working with any FINRA member firm — per the agreement, without admitting or denying any wrongdoing. Meyers gave an elaborate account during his initial phone interview with TPM in which he was the true victim in all of this. FINRA was, he said, a 'captured regulator' hell-bent on getting a win, facts or no. 'They're not a government agency,' Meyers noted. 'In fact they are a constitutional bypass.' 'The reason that I gave up is because they drained every penny that I had. I didn't have the money to fight them,' he said. 'It happens to tens of thousands of people that don't do anything wrong.' Agreeing to sign the deal was better than wasting money on legal defense. Meyers told TPM that after the FINRA ban, he left the financial services industry and found a new career in cryptocurrency. He recounted meeting fascinating people in the experience, and emphasized to TPM that 'each one of them are of the opinion that just because you want privacy doesn't make you guilty of anything. And cryptography is about protecting information in the presence of adversaries.' I spoke with former FINRA employees about Meyers' case. One, an ex-FINRA enforcement counsel named Gary Carleton, pointed out that Meyers, though he did not agree with or deny allegations of wrongdoing, had made the choice to sign an agreement in which he was barred. Carleton told TPM that 'people do make allegations against brokers,' but that 'well under half of those that are brought forward actually result in any kind of disciplinary proceeding.' The process then goes through a few checks, Carleton said: a non-enforcement body within FINRA reviews cases before they're brought. Everyone has a chance to appeal to the SEC, should they wish. Another former FINRA official, who wished to remain anonymous, said Meyers was telling a familiar story. 'They all say, 'oh, I was forced to settle.' They all say it was a vendetta,' the person said. 'But usually, if you're a captured regulator, it works the other way. If you're a captured regulator, the idea is you'd go out of your way to protect the industry, not to ban people from it.' Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
Al Jazeera
27-06-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
AI is fuelling a new wave of border vigilantism in the US
In Arizona's borderlands, the desert is already deadly. People crossing into the United States face blistering heat, dehydration, and exhaustion. But for years, another threat has stalked these routes: Armed vigilante groups who take it upon themselves to police the border – often violently, and outside the law. They have long undermined the work of humanitarian volunteers trying to save lives. Now, a new artificial intelligence platform is actively encouraging more people to join their ranks. recently launched in the United States, offers cryptocurrency rewards to users who upload photos of 'suspicious activity' along the border. It positions civilians as front-line intelligence gatherers – doing the work of law enforcement, but without oversight. The site opens to a map of the United States, dotted with red and green pins marking user-submitted images. Visitors are invited to add their own. A 'Surveillance Guidance' document outlines how to capture images legally in public without a warrant. A 'Breaking News' section shares updates and new partnerships. The platform is fronted by Enrique Tarrio – a first-generation Cuban American, far-right figure and self-styled 'ICE Raid Czar', who describes himself as a 'staunch defender of American values'. I have been researching border surveillance since 2017. Arizona is a place I return to often. I've worked with NGOs and accompanied search-and-rescue teams like Battalion Search and Rescue, led by former US Marine James Holeman, on missions to recover the remains of people who died attempting the crossing. During that time, I've also watched the region become a laboratory for high-tech enforcement: AI towers from an Israeli company now scan the desert; automated licence plate readers track vehicles far inland; and machine-learning algorithms – developed by major tech companies – feed data directly into immigration enforcement systems. This is not unique to the United States. In my book The Walls Have Eyes: Surviving Migration in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, I document how similar technologies are being deployed across Europe and the Middle East – from spyware in Greek refugee camps to predictive border enforcement by the EU's border agency, Frontex. These tools extend surveillance and control. They do not bring accountability or safety. Since Donald Trump's re-election in 2024, these trends have accelerated. Surveillance investment has surged. Private firms have flourished. ICE has expanded its powers to include unlawful raids, detentions and deportations. Military units have been deployed to the US-Mexico border. Now, ICERAID adds a new layer – by outsourcing enforcement to the public. The platform offers crypto rewards to users who upload and verify photographic 'evidence' across eight categories of alleged criminal activity. The more contributions and locations submitted, the more tokens earned. Surveillance becomes gamified. Suspicion becomes a revenue stream. This is especially dangerous in Arizona, where vigilante violence has a long history. Paramilitary-style groups have detained people crossing the border without legal authority, sometimes forcing them back into Mexico. Several people are known to have died in such encounters. ICERAID does not check this behaviour – it normalises it, providing digital tools and financial incentives for civilians to act like enforcers. Even more disturbing is the co-optation of resistance infrastructure. ICERAID's URL, is nearly identical to the website of People Over Papers, a community-led initiative that tracks ICE raids and protects undocumented communities. The similarity is no accident. It is a deliberate move to confuse and undermine grassroots resistance. ICERAID is not an anomaly. It is a clear reflection of a broader system – one that criminalises migration, rewards suspicion, and expands enforcement through private tech and public fear. Public officials incite panic. Corporations build the tools. Civilians are enlisted to do the job. Technology is never neutral. It mirrors and amplifies existing power structures. ICERAID does not offer security – it builds a decentralised surveillance regime in which racialised suspicion is monetised and lives are reduced to data. Recognising and resisting this system is not only necessary to protect people on the move. It is essential to the survival of democracy itself. The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance.
Al Jazeera
27-06-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
AI is turning border enforcement in the US into a game
In Arizona's borderlands, the desert is already deadly. People crossing into the United States face blistering heat, dehydration, and exhaustion. But for years, another threat has stalked these routes: Armed vigilante groups who take it upon themselves to police the border – often violently, and outside the law. They have long undermined the work of humanitarian volunteers trying to save lives. Now, a new artificial intelligence platform is actively encouraging more people to join their ranks. recently launched in the United States, offers cryptocurrency rewards to users who upload photos of 'suspicious activity' along the border. It positions civilians as front-line intelligence gatherers – doing the work of law enforcement, but without oversight. The site opens to a map of the United States, dotted with red and green pins marking user-submitted images. Visitors are invited to add their own. A 'Surveillance Guidance' document outlines how to capture images legally in public without a warrant. A 'Breaking News' section shares updates and new partnerships. The platform is fronted by Enrique Tarrio – a first-generation Cuban American, far-right figure and self-styled 'ICE Raid Czar', who describes himself as a 'staunch defender of American values'. I have been researching border surveillance since 2017. Arizona is a place I return to often. I've worked with NGOs and accompanied search-and-rescue teams like Battalion Search and Rescue, led by former US Marine James Holeman, on missions to recover the remains of people who died attempting the crossing. During that time, I've also watched the region become a laboratory for high-tech enforcement: AI towers from an Israeli company now scan the desert; automated licence plate readers track vehicles far inland; and machine-learning algorithms – developed by major tech companies – feed data directly into immigration enforcement systems. This is not unique to the United States. In my book The Walls Have Eyes: Surviving Migration in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, I document how similar technologies are being deployed across Europe and the Middle East – from spyware in Greek refugee camps to predictive border enforcement by the EU's border agency, Frontex. These tools extend surveillance and control. They do not bring accountability or safety. Since Donald Trump's re-election in 2024, these trends have accelerated. Surveillance investment has surged. Private firms have flourished. ICE has expanded its powers to include unlawful raids, detentions and deportations. Military units have been deployed to the US-Mexico border. Now, ICERAID adds a new layer – by outsourcing enforcement to the public. The platform offers crypto rewards to users who upload and verify photographic 'evidence' across eight categories of alleged criminal activity. The more contributions and locations submitted, the more tokens earned. Surveillance becomes gamified. Suspicion becomes a revenue stream. This is especially dangerous in Arizona, where vigilante violence has a long history. Paramilitary-style groups have detained people crossing the border without legal authority, sometimes forcing them back into Mexico. Several people are known to have died in such encounters. ICERAID does not check this behaviour – it normalises it, providing digital tools and financial incentives for civilians to act like enforcers. Even more disturbing is the co-optation of resistance infrastructure. ICERAID's URL, is nearly identical to the website of People Over Papers, a community-led initiative that tracks ICE raids and protects undocumented communities. The similarity is no accident. It is a deliberate move to confuse and undermine grassroots resistance. ICERAID is not an anomaly. It is a clear reflection of a broader system – one that criminalises migration, rewards suspicion, and expands enforcement through private tech and public fear. Public officials incite panic. Corporations build the tools. Civilians are enlisted to do the job. Technology is never neutral. It mirrors and amplifies existing power structures. ICERAID does not offer security – it builds a decentralised surveillance regime in which racialised suspicion is monetised and lives are reduced to data. Recognising and resisting this system is not only necessary to protect people on the move. It is essential to the survival of democracy itself. The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance.
Miami Herald
12-06-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
Proud Boy Enrique Tarrio wants you to report undocumented people – and get paid for it
Enrique Tarrio, the former Proud Boys leader from Miami who President Donald Trump pardoned for his participation in the Jan. 6 attack, wants citizens to take deporting undocumented immigrants into their own hands. Literally, he has an app for that. Tarrio has announced he will be the 'czar' of an independent organization that pays people cryptocurrency for reporting undocumented migrants. Enrique Tarrio, who until recently was serving a 22-year sentence for seditious conspiracy charges for his involvement organizing the Jan. 6 attack, promoted a web app called on his X account. The app crowdsources tips to help law enforcement arrest and deport immigrants. The group, while not affiliated with the U.S. government, aims to support the Trump administration's crackdown on immigration. 'I am honored to serve as ICERAID Czar and to lead a platform that empowers Americans to protect our nation's values and security,' said Tarrio in a statement. Tarrio's involvement as a spokesperson for the initiative comes as the Trump administration separately encourages people to report suspected undocumented people to federal authorities. On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security published a vintage-style image featuring Uncle Sam hammering a poster to a wall that said 'Help Your Country…and Yourself…Report All Foreign Invaders' and listed ICE's hotline. 'Help your country locate and arrest illegal aliens,' the agency said in the social media post sharing the image. Immigrants' rights activists and community leaders say they worry that the government's campaign encouraging citizens to report undocumented immigrants will turn communities on each other. They also worry that some individuals will weaponize reports to abuse or intimidate undocumented immigrants in the workplace or in personal relationships. ICE's top investigator in Puerto Rico recently told NPR that tips to her agency have come in from businesses reporting on competition or people outing neighbors and ex-partners. In a press release, ICERAID described Tarrio as a 'staunch defender of American values' who would oversee the app's 'strategic growth, community engagement, and partnerships, ensuring that it remains a beacon of patriotism.' Users will be able to snap photos of people they believe are violating immigration laws and upload them to the platform along with a brief description. Other crimes that can be reported include obstruction of justice, drug trafficking, terrorism, and animal cruelty. The app generates a color coded map where users can see others' reports. The app's website cautions that privacy laws vary state by state and features an extensive guide on surveillance laws — 'for informational purposes only.' It singles out Florida's privacy laws, which require consent to be recorded in private settings. Tarrio said that people who make reports will get paid in a cryptocurrency known as $RAID and that the app will roll out weekly contests so users can get 'bonuses on your bounties.' He also emphasized that people should make reports directly to federal and local authorities, including ICE. 'The more images and locations you upload and validate, the more $RAID you earn,' the ICERaid webpage reads. 'We need to incentivize our citizens to help ICE with these deportations. And this is how you do it,' said Tarrio on a right-wing podcast on Wednesday. The app also says that undocumented immigrants can 'earn a large reward if you pursue a legal status in the United States through self reporting using the ICERAID application.' However, only federal authorities can confer anyone legal immigration status, which the ICERAID webpage acknowledges, as well as that it's not an official government website. Tarrio, who identifies as afro-Cuban, grew up in Little Havana. He was previously the state director of Latinos for Trump in Florida. He was the chairman of the Proud Boys when members of the extremist, white nationalist group stormed the Capitol with other pro-Trump organizations. Several Proud Boys were among the nearly 1,600 people charged or convicted in relation to the Jan. 6 incident. Although Tarrio himself was not in Washington D.C. on Jan. 6, the Department of Justice viewed him as one of the masterminds of the insurrection. In September 2023, he and other Proud Boys were convicted for conspiring to impede Congress from certifying Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential election. In January, Trump issued a sweeping pardon to individuals convicted for criminal charges related to Jan. 6. READ MORE: Enrique Tarrio, sentenced for central role in Jan. 6 plot, is freed by Trump Last week, Tarrio and four other Proud Boys filed a federal lawsuit in Orlando against the Department of Justice and the FBI. The lawsuit claims that the federal government violated their constitutional rights and that their prosecution in the Jan. 6 cases were politically motivated. The men seek $100 million in damages. Now that Tarrio is a free man, he's focused on promoting the citizen policing web app. He spoke extensively about it on the podcast Wednesday, where Barry Ramey, a Proud Boy from Plantation who Trump pardoned for assaulting two officers with pepper spray, joked that the app was 'the conservative version of that Pokemon game that came out years ago.' 'Perfect example. This is like Pokemon,' Tarrio replied, laughing. 'I'll talk to the developers, see if we can get a catch phrase similar to 'Gotta catch them all'.'
