"Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts sent a letter Monday to Border Patrol's parent agency calling the license plate reader program an invasive surveillance network that poses a serious threat to individuals' privacy and civil liberties and raised the possibility that the program may run afoul of the U.S. Constitution. Such pervasive surveillance similar to surveillance conducted by authoritarian regimes such as China not only chills lawful expression and assembly but also raises serious constitutional concerns."
"An Associated Press investigation published last week revealed that the U.S. Border Patrol, a component of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, is running a predictive intelligence program monitoring millions of American drivers nationwide to identify and detain people whose travel patterns it deems suspicious. In some instances, Border Patrol concealed its license plate readers in ordinary traffic equipment. The agency also had access to plate data collected by other federal, state and local law enforcement agencies as well as from private companies."
Democratic lawmakers are questioning the legality of a U.S. Border Patrol predictive intelligence program that singles out and detains drivers for suspicious travel inside the country. Sen. Ed Markey characterized the license plate reader program as an invasive surveillance network that threatens privacy, civil liberties and may violate the U.S. Constitution. He warned that pervasive surveillance similar to that in authoritarian regimes chills lawful expression and assembly and erodes individual rights without transparency, accountability, and limitations. An investigation found the program monitors millions of American drivers nationwide, sometimes conceals plate readers, uses data from other agencies and private companies, and has led to stops, searches and arrests under multiple administrations.
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