Hill is one of nine people currently standing trial for events stemming from a small protest that took place on July 4, 2025, at the Prairieland Detention Center just outside of Dallas, in which a police officer was non-fatally shot. According to participants, the protest was meant to be a noisy but peaceful show of solidarity with ICE detainees held in the prison.
This morning at approximately 6:30 a.m., federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security entered a Columbia Residential building and detained a student. Our understanding at this time is that the federal agents made misrepresentations to gain entry to the building to search for a 'missing person.'
In the United States, we haven't yet seen rifles aimed at large crowds, but we do observe masked federal agents detaining protesters in unmarked vehicles, flashy ICE raids staged like military operations and pardons for political violence all clear warning signs. Ignoring this is the first step toward complacency, which can kill liberty. Fascism is often misunderstood. It is not just political oppression; it is a set of traits, as scholars and observers point out,
Last week, two Democrats in the Senate hosted a " bicameral public forum to receive testimony on the violent tactics and disproportionate use of force by agents of the Department of Homeland Security." Here in Minnesota, we continue to deal with the thousands of immigration enforcement agents who have unleashed unspeakable violence on our state. Flights leave daily with men, women, and children, some of whom are citizens, green-card holders, or asylum-seekers with pending cases, to detention centers with a prevailing culture of abuse. Countless other legal observers and protesters, including myself, have been handcuffed and detained for hours without being charged with a crime, or intimidated with weapons and threats.
I want to reiterate that this is a trial of the technology to assess how it performs in a railway setting. The initiative follows a significant amount of research and planning, and forms part of BTP's commitment to using innovative technology to make the railways a hostile place for individuals wanted for serious criminal offences, helping us keep the public safe.
To combat these abuses, EFF is proud to support the "ICE Out of My Face Act." This new federal bill would ban ICE and CBP agents, and some local police working with them, from acquiring or using biometric surveillance systems, including face recognition technology, or information derived from such systems by another entity. This bill would be enforceable, among other ways, by a strong private right of action.
While the authority is legally limited to foreign intelligence, it can sweep in Americans' texts, emails and phone calls when they communicate with overseas targets. Those incidental collections - which have sometimes been followed by unauthorized searches of Americans' communications - have been extensively documented by government oversight bodies in recent years. The findings fueled reforms adopted when Congress last renewed the authority in April 2024.
