The "AI"-Enabled Immigration Panopticon (with Petra Molnar), 2025.05.05

This week, Alex and Emily talk with anthropologist and immigration lawyer Petra Molnar about the dehumanizing hype of border-enforcement tech. From hoovering up data to hunt anyone of ambiguous citizenship status, to running surveillance of physical borders themselves, "AI" tech is everywhere in the enforcement of national borders. And as companies ranging from Amazon, to NSO Group, to Palantir all profit, this widening of automation threatens a future of faceless human rights violations with no attempts at accountability of any kind.

Petra Molnar is associate director of York University's Refugee Law Lab, and a faculty associate for the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. She's also the author of the book The Walls Have Eyes: Surviving immigration in the age of artificial intelligence.

References:

Department of Homeland Security: Robot Dogs Take Another Step Towards Deployment at the Border

Leaked: Palantir’s Plan to Help ICE Deport People

Athens prepares to host DEFEA 2025, a major hub for international defence cooperation

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