ICE and the Architecture of Authoritarianism
Dean Jackson / Jul 19, 2026Audio of this conversation is available via your favorite podcast service.
At Tech Policy Press, we’ve monitored the massive influx of money into the Department of Homeland Security to support the Trump administration’s brutal and increasingly lawless immigration crackdown. Last month saw the publication of a report commissioned by Mijente, Just Futures Law, and Surveillance Resistance Lab titled "The Tech Behind Ice: Oligarchs, Immigration Enforcement, and the Threat to Democracy." I spoke to two of the report’s authors—Surveillance Resistance Lab founder and executive director Mizue Aizeki and Just Futures Law founding executive director Paromita Shah—about what billions in tech investment is buying DHS and its component agencies, and what is necessary to reverse the authoritarian trajectory the country is on.
A transcript is forthcoming.
BIDDEFORD, MAINE - JULY 15: A person observes a makeshift memorial for Joan Sebastian Durán Guerrero, a 26-year-old Colombian immigrant who was fatally shot by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, on July 15, 2026 in Biddeford, Maine. Guerrero's death comes less than a week after federal immigration agents shot and killed 52-year-old Mexican national Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Texas. (Photo by Ryan Murphy/Getty Images)
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