US Government Tracking Journalists and Immigration Advocates | Hacker News Reader

US Government Tracking Journalists and Immigration Advocates

nbcsandiego.com

196 pointsvinnyglennon52 comments

Duplicate of https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19325302

Lots of flagged comments here. :)

If I read the assertions of the article correctly, isn't the issue that the border patrol is collecting information (i.e. acting as an intelligence agency) as opposed to its fundamental mission of protecting the border (which is strictly reactionary to breaking the laws).

Is the issue that border patrol is shifting into new territory as an agency? Regardless of the obvious issues around any USA based agency collecting information on its own citizens, is the biggest question just whether this is legal for them under their charter?

Or, am I misreading the issue under argument here?

[edit "USA" to say "USA based agency"...]

Their response gave some light on the action, they say they didn't create the list until after the violence broke out. Seems pretty logical that they would attempt investigate who was there at the time. Not sure it's justified, but logical.

"CBP told our colleagues at NBC News that the names in the database are all people who were present during violence that broke out at the border in November. The agency also said journalists are being tracked so that the agency can learn more about what started that violence."

>Seems pretty logical

There will always be explanations for such lists. And they will always be criminal activity or terrorism. That no such lists were made in the past is always considered irrelevant. That identical circumstances elsewhere produce no such lists is glossed over.

>Lots of flagged comments here...USA collecting information on its own citizens is the biggest question

The biggest question is why so many people are perfectly happy with this along side "press is the enemy of the people" and an arbitrary declaration of emergency. Perhaps by questioning and studying why a population suddenly accepts things they never would in the past, other counties will adjust.

And it's not really a question, it's really just observing another country following the path of Hungary, Poland, Turkey, Venezuela, Philippines, Russia and India all at various stages along the same trajectory.

It's not just the border. ICE is also keeping lists of protestors in NYC.[0]

0 - https://www.thenation.com/article/ice-immigration-protest-sp...

If this was true, you wouldn't know about it.

Oh, so sort of like how all that stuff Edward Snowden revealed wasn't true, huh?

>For each person, the documents show their photo, often from their passport but in some cases from their social media accounts, along with their personal information. That information includes the person’s date of birth, their “country of commencement,” and their alleged role tied to the migrant caravan.

Awfully inconvenient of NBC San Diego and/or the leakers not to release the documents so we could see examples of "their alleged role tied to the migrant caravan". Would probably be helpful context.

> not to release the documents

I'm quite certain the crime here would be releasing these documents and doxxing innocent people who are doing their normal, okay, not-illegal jobs.

Yea I don't really see how you can support or dismiss this either way without knowing what the 3 letter agencies think the people in this list are doing.

For all we know they could have been in contact with cartel or cartel associates in an official capacity just investigating things which of course might put them on a list.

Wouldn't that involve releasing people's personal information? I don't think that's a good idea at all.

From The Fine Article:

> To view the documents, click here or the link below.

The documents are literally linked to from the article. The roles listed are things like "Journalist", "Media/Photographer", "Organizer", "Instigator", "Unknown", "N/A", etc

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