In Arizona’s borderlands, the desert is already lethal. Folks crossing into america face blistering warmth, dehydration, and exhaustion. However for years, one other menace has stalked these routes: Armed vigilante teams who take it upon themselves to police the border – usually violently, and outdoors the legislation. They’ve lengthy undermined the work of humanitarian volunteers attempting to avoid wasting lives.
Now, a brand new synthetic intelligence platform is actively encouraging extra individuals to affix their ranks. ICERAID.us, lately launched in america, affords cryptocurrency rewards to customers who add pictures of “suspicious exercise” alongside the border. It positions civilians as front-line intelligence gatherers – doing the work of legislation enforcement, however with out oversight.
The location opens to a map of america, dotted with pink and inexperienced pins marking user-submitted pictures. Guests are invited so as to add their very own. A “Surveillance Steerage” doc outlines the best way to seize pictures legally in public with no warrant. A “Breaking Information” part shares updates and new partnerships. The platform is fronted by Enrique Tarrio – a first-generation Cuban American, far-right determine and self-styled “ICE Raid Czar”, who describes himself as a “staunch defender of American values”.
I’ve been researching border surveillance since 2017. Arizona is a spot I return to usually. I’ve labored with NGOs and accompanied search-and-rescue groups like Battalion Search and Rescue, led by former US Marine James Holeman, on missions to recuperate the stays of people that died making an attempt the crossing. Throughout that point, I’ve additionally watched the area turn into a laboratory for high-tech enforcement: AI towers from an Israeli firm now scan the desert; automated licence plate readers observe automobiles far inland; and machine-learning algorithms – developed by main tech corporations – feed knowledge instantly into immigration enforcement techniques.
This isn’t distinctive to america. In my e-book The Partitions Have Eyes: Surviving Migration within the Age of Synthetic Intelligence, I doc how related applied sciences are being deployed throughout Europe and the Center East – from spy ware in Greek refugee camps to predictive border enforcement by the EU’s border company, Frontex. These instruments prolong surveillance and management. They don’t deliver accountability or security.
Since Donald Trump’s re-election in 2024, these developments have accelerated. Surveillance funding has surged. Non-public companies have flourished. ICE has expanded its powers to incorporate illegal raids, detentions and deportations. Army items have been deployed to the US-Mexico border. Now, ICERAID provides a brand new layer – by outsourcing enforcement to the general public.
The platform affords crypto rewards to customers who add and confirm photographic “proof” throughout eight classes of alleged prison exercise. The extra contributions and places submitted, the extra tokens earned. Surveillance turns into gamified. Suspicion turns into a income stream.
That is particularly harmful in Arizona, the place vigilante violence has an extended historical past. Paramilitary-style teams have detained individuals crossing the border with out authorized authority, typically forcing them again into Mexico. A number of individuals are identified to have died in such encounters. ICERAID doesn’t verify this behaviour – it normalises it, offering digital instruments and monetary incentives for civilians to behave like enforcers.
Much more disturbing is the co-optation of resistance infrastructure. ICERAID’s URL, www.iceraid.us, is sort of equivalent to www.iceraids.us, the web site of Folks Over Papers, a community-led initiative that tracks ICE raids and protects undocumented communities. The similarity is not any accident. It’s a deliberate transfer to confuse and undermine grassroots resistance.
ICERAID isn’t an anomaly. It’s a clear reflection of a broader system – one which criminalises migration, rewards suspicion, and expands enforcement by personal tech and public worry. Public officers incite panic. Firms construct the instruments. Civilians are enlisted to do the job.
Know-how isn’t impartial. It mirrors and amplifies current energy buildings. ICERAID doesn’t supply safety – it builds a decentralised surveillance regime wherein racialised suspicion is monetised and lives are lowered to knowledge. Recognising and resisting this technique isn’t solely mandatory to guard individuals on the transfer. It’s important to the survival of democracy itself.
The views expressed on this article are the writer’s personal and don’t essentially mirror Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.