Hillicon Valley — Immigrants being put in surveillance programs

Today is Friday. Welcome to Hillicon Valley, detailing all you need to know about tech and cyber news from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley. Subscribe here: thehill.com/newsletter-signup.

Follow The Hill’s cyber reporter, Maggie Miller (@magmill95), and tech team, Chris Mills Rodrigo (@millsrodrigo) and Rebecca Klar (@rebeccaklar_), for more coverage.

A record number of immigrants are being monitored under a surveillance program launched as an alternative to traditional detention facilities. The growth under the Biden administration is alarming critics who say the program causes harm to immigrants. 

Meanwhile, YouTube suspended Sen. Ron JohnsonRonald (Ron) Harold JohnsonGOP sees inflation as winning issue Sunrise Wisconsin endorses Tom Nelson in Democratic Senate primary Democrats start blitz to sell infrastructure MORE’s (R-Wis.) account for one week for violating the platform’s policy against COVID-19 misinformation, and human rights organizations say Facebook is interfering with an independent report to investigate hate speech on the platform in India. 

In unrelated news, not a great day to be Jake Gyllenhaal online. 

Let’s jump into the news.

Migrant monitoring reaches record levels

The number of migrants being monitored under a surveillance program launched as an alternative to traditional detention facilities has grown astronomically during the Biden administration. 

A record 136,026 immigrants are now being monitored under Immigration and Custom Enforcement’s (ICE) Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP), up from 86,000 at the beginning of the year.

That growth has alarmed critics who say the program causes mental and physical harm to immigrants while doing little to divert them away from ICE’s brick-and-mortar facilities.

“Too many people in this administration, and in past administrations, have seen these types of electronic surveillance programs as relatively harmless, effective alternatives to immigration detention,” said Peter Markowitz, director of the Kathryn O. Greenberg Immigration Justice Clinic at Cardozo Law School. “I think what we see is that they’re neither harmless nor really alternatives to detention.”

ISAP, now in its fourth iteration, was launched in 2004 as a way to monitor immigrants in removal proceedings through a mix of home and field office visits, court tracking and electronic surveillance.

The program has become a favorite of the Biden administration, which has tried to position its immigration strategy as a humane alternative to former President TrumpDonald TrumpJan. 6 panel demands Meadows testify Friday or risk contempt charge Defense & National Security — Biden marks Veterans Day Trump endorses Texas rep who said he ‘very well may have’ committed impeachable offenses MORE‘s.

Read more here. 

YouTube suspends Sen. Johnson (again)

Sen. Ron Johnson’s (R-Wis.) YouTube account was suspended for one week Friday for uploading content violating the platform’s policy against COVID-19 misinformation.

The video that triggered the suspension was a roundtable discussion in which the lawmaker falsely claimed that coronavirus vaccines are unsafe.

“The updated figures today are 17,619,” he said. “That is 225 times the number of deaths in just a 10-month period versus an annual figure for the flu vaccine. These vaccine injuries are real.”

Johnson was citing numbers from the self-reporting database the Vaccine Adverse Effects Reporting System (VAERS). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns that reports in the system, which can easily be gamed by activists hoping to prove a point, “do not necessarily mean that a vaccine caused a health problem.”

The Hill has reached out to the senator’s office for comment on the suspension.

Read more here. 

MORE TROUBLE FOR FACEBOOK

Human rights groups say that Facebook is narrowing the scope of and delaying the process for an independent report commissioned to investigate hate speech on the tech giant’s platform in India. 

Representatives for the groups told The Wall Street Journal they provided hundreds of examples of inflammatory content and suggested ways the platform could better moderate content in India to the firm Facebook commissioned in mid-2020 for the report, but said the tech giant is stifling the independent report. 

Facebook pushed back on the accusations that it is interfering with the report. A spokesperson for Meta, Facebook’s new parent company name, said the goal is to be thorough not “meet an arbitrary deadline.” 

“We look forward to our independent assessor, Foley Hoag, completing their India assessment,” spokesman Andy Stone told the Journal. 

Stone said Foley Hoag, the firm commissioned by Facebook for the report, is running the process and that Facebook is not aware of or in touch with which groups were contacted. Stone also told the Journal the platform has removed material that violates its rules that groups flagged to Foley Hoag. 

Read more here. 

CRYPTOCURRENCY (MIAMI’S VERSION)

Miami Mayor Francis SuarezFrancis SuarezMiami residents to receive city cryptocurrency proceeds, mayor says Hillicon Valley — Presented by LookingGlass — Congress makes technology policy moves Miami mayor wants to pay city workers with bitcoin MORE (R) said he intends to give proceeds from the city’s cryptocurrency, MiamiCoin, directly to residents.

Those proceeds, totaling roughly $21 million dollars, are a result of Miami staking its cryptocurrency in order to earn Bitcoin, according to the cryptocurrency news site Coindesk.com, which conducted an interview with Suarez on Thursday.

“We’re going to be the first city in America to give a Bitcoin yield as a dividend directly to its residents,” Suarez told the hosts of the site. “We’re going to create digital wallets for our residents, and we’re going to give them Bitcoin directly from the yield of MiamiCoin.”

Read more here. 

BITS AND PIECES

An op-ed to chew on: Let’s not go overboard regulating Big Tech acquisitions  

Lighter click: Filibuster (Taylor’s Version)

Notable links from around the web:

The Sneaky Way TikTok Is Connecting You to Real-Life Friends (Wired / Louise Matsakis)

Amazon’s Spinmasters: Behind the Internet Giant’s Battle With the Press (The Information / Paris Martineau)

Covid vaccine holdouts are caving to mandates — then scrambling to ‘undo’ their shots (NBC News / Ben Collins)

One last thing: The kids are (still) not all right

A group of Senate Democrats on Friday urged the federal government to do more to protect K-12 institutions and students against crippling cyberattacks, which have increasingly wreaked havoc across the nation during the past year. 

Sens. Maggie HassanMargaret (Maggie) HassanBiden to travel to New Hampshire, Michigan to promote infrastructure package The Hill’s Morning Report – Presented by Facebook – GOP dealt 2022 blow, stares down Trump-era troubles Sununu exit underscores uncertain GOP path to gain Senate majority MORE (D-N.H.), Kyrsten SinemaKyrsten SinemaMcConnell won’t go to White House signing ceremony for infrastructure bill On The Money — Biden’s battle with inflation McConnell ups pressure on Manchin, Sinema: They could sink spending plan MORE (D-Ariz.), Jacky RosenJacklyn (Jacky) Sheryl RosenHillicon Valley — US strikes back against Kaseya attackers Senators launch bipartisan Women in STEM Caucus Senators seek to permanently expand telehealth eligibility MORE (D-Nev.), and Chris Van HollenChristopher (Chris) Van HollenDemocrats look to establish green bank for clean energy projects Overnight Defense & National Security — Sparring over sub deal intensifies Equilibrium/Sustainability — Presented by Delta — Electric airplane makes record-setting flight MORE (D-Md.) sent a letter earlier this week to Education Secretary Miguel CardonaMiguel CardonaDemocrats call on Education secretary to address ‘stealthing’ at federal level Top Biden officials urging school administrators to help get students vaccinated Pavlich: Democrats’ weaponization of the DOJ is back MORE and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro MayorkasAlejandro MayorkasBiden marks Veterans Day at Arlington National Cemetery DHS streamlining process for Afghan evacuees resettling in US Amtrak chief outlines expansion plans with infrastructure spending MORE detailing their concerns about student safety and privacy amid the spike in attacks.

“K-12 schools need additional support, as evidenced by the increasing number of successful cyberattacks on K-12 schools,” the senators wrote. 

They pointed in particular to the need to implement recommendations outlined in a report released last month by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), which recommended that the Department of Education update its plan for protecting schools from cyber threats given the changing environment. 

The letter was sent as attacks against K-12 schools continue to pile up and disrupt learning. Attacks were particularly prevalent during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when many classes moved online.

Read more here. 

That’s it for today, thanks for reading. Check out The Hill’s technology and cybersecurity pages for the latest news and coverage. We’ll see you Monday.