Contact:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167
Boston Bombing and Immigration Reform: The Risks of Expanding Biometric Cybersurveillance
MARGARET HU, mhu at law.duke.edu
Hu is an assistant professor at Duke Law School and author of the forthcoming article "Biometric ID Cybersurveillance" in the Indiana Law Journal. She said today: "Some members of Congress have argued that Comprehensive Immigration Reform should be delayed in light of the Boston bombing. Others will likely call for more surveillance measures through the proposed immigration reform legislation.
WASHINGTON
MARGARET HU, mhu at law.duke.edu
Hu is an assistant professor at Duke Law School and author of the forthcoming article "Biometric ID Cybersurveillance" in the Indiana Law Journal. She said today: "Some members of Congress have argued that Comprehensive Immigration Reform should be delayed in light of the Boston bombing. Others will likely call for more surveillance measures through the proposed immigration reform legislation.
"More surveillance risks this problem: turning all U.S. citizens and all lawful immigrants into potential terrorist suspects. In fact, the bipartisan Senate comprehensive immigration reform proposal that was released last week already showed signs of multiple surveillance cancers, even before the bombing. The bill includes the significant expansion of various cybersurveillance and data surveillance (dataveillance) measures. For example, it significantly increases the use of drones for border security. It also increases biometric dataveillance and the likelihood that a universal biometric database would be needed to carry out new programs created by the bill. A universal digital photo database of all citizens and non-citizens, for example, could be used by the drone program (DHS and local law enforcement) for nearly invisible tracking.
"Specifically, Section 3102 gives $1 billion to the Social Security Administration to develop a 'fraud-resistant, tamper-resistant, wear-resistant, and identity theft-resistant' Social Security Card. Previous debates on immigration reform have explained that a 'high-tech' Social Security Card will resemble a credit card and will include biometric data (e.g., digital photo, maybe fingerprint and iris scans, and at least one member of Congress suggested DNA). Section 3103 states: 'Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary [of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security] shall submit a report to Congress on the feasibility, advantages, and disadvantages of including, in addition to a photograph, other biometric information on each employment authorization document issued by the Department.' In short, the bill incorporates multiple provisions that include a dramatic expansion of both biometric data collection protocols and biometric database screening protocols.
"To protect the foundational principles of a democratic society, we need less surveillance not more. Mass biometric data collection and suspicionless cybersurveillance measures that treat all Americans and immigrants like potential terrorist suspects won't make us safer."
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House Democrats and civil society groups led condemnation of legislation introduced Monday by congressional Republicans and backed by President Donald Trump that one lawmaker said is "about tax breaks for billionaires and kickbacks to corporate donors" at the expense of working class families.
The 389-page bill includes trillions of dollars in tax cuts that would disproportionately benefit the ultra-wealthy and corporations, largely by extending Trump's first-term reductions in taxation mainly for top earners derided as the "GOP tax scam." The proposal also broadens the estate tax exemption for the superrich and makes permanent a massive tax break on offshore corporate profits, a top wish-list item for Big Business.
The proposal would reduce government revenue by trillions of dollars and swell the national debt—currently a staggering $36.2 trillion, or the equivalent of 127% of U.S. gross domestic product—and cost over $5 trillion.
The bill partially offsets the revenue loss by sharply slashing social spending, including on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid. The legislation would impose work and cost-sharing requirements on many Medicaid beneficiaries and increase eligibility checks. Critics warn that millions of people would lose their health insurance coverage if the bill is passed in its current form.
Former Democratic U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich called the proposed legislation "trickle-down economics on steroids."
The Trump-GOP tax bill proposal:
-Extend 2017 cuts for top earners
-Increase the "pass-through" loophole for big businesses
-Expand the estate tax exemption for the ultra-rich
-Make a huge tax break for offshore corporate profits permanent
Trickle down economics on steroids.
— Robert Reich (@rbreich.bsky.social) May 12, 2025 at 11:32 AM
On the positive side, the popular Child Tax Credit would grow for many households under the proposal. So would the standard deduction. There would also be temporary tax breaks for overtime pay, car-loan interest, and tips. The proposal also establishes a new tax-preferred savings account for children younger than 8 years old under which the government would contribute the first $1,000 for kids born between 2025-28.
However, critics noted that millions of families would receive no benefit from the Child Tax Credit increase, wealthy business partnerships would get an even bigger
passthrough deduction than in an earlier draft of the bill, and taxes on many tips and overtime work remain.
"This bill isn't about balancing the budget—it's about tax breaks for billionaires and kickbacks to corporate donors and billionaires, while silencing public voices," said Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.). "We see the grift and we're calling it out."
Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), the ranking member of the House Budget Committee, noted that "Trump loves to call his budget the 'big, beautiful bill.'"
"It is—for billionaires," he added. "While Trump's billionaire donors get trillions in tax cuts, working Americans get the largest Medicaid cuts in American history."
House Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.) warned, "I'll tell you what's coming: handouts for billionaires, healthcare cuts for the people."
The GOP agenda: rip health care away from millions of Americans to pay for massive tax breaks for the ultra-rich.
This is the moment to fight back with everything we’ve got.
Civil society groups also sounded the alarm over the bill.
"Families across the country are struggling now more than ever to get food on the table, visit the doctor, and afford lifesaving medication," ParentsTogether Action executive director Ailen Arreaza said Monday. "But instead of finding ways to offer some relief, Republicans in Congress are racing to pass a bill to hand massive new tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy."
"Even worse? Their plan is to pay for it by ripping healthcare and nutrition aid away from millions," Arreaza added. "One thing is clear: Gutting Medicaid and SNAP to fund tax breaks for the rich is cruelty disguised as policy—and parents across the country will take note of how their representatives vote this week as evidence of who they're fighting for, their constituents or their wealthy donors."
David Kass, executive director of Americans for Tax Fairness, said in a statement that "the House GOP has revealed in broad daylight that their tax bill is a clear scam—one that hands out massive giveaways to their billionaire and corporate donors off the backs of their constituents with a price tag of over $5 trillion."
"The plan's massive cuts to vital programs like Medicaid and SNAP will drive up healthcare and food prices for millions of workers and families, while billionaires pocket the money and the national debt soars," Kass added. "Working and middle-class families—and future generations—shouldn't have to pay higher prices simply to enrich billionaire elites and the politicians in their pocket."
Lawmakers and green groups on Monday sounded the alarm on the energy and environmental provisions in the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee's section of a Republican-backed tax and spending megabill, which is slated to be marked up in a committee meeting on Tuesday.
Critics are warning the proposal will harm regular Americans by seeking savings through a take back of funds from various programs in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the signature climate legislation signed into law under former U.S. President Joe Biden, and includes "giveaways" for oil and gas companies.
Congressional Republicans are pressing ahead with a spending and tax cuts bill that will primarily benefit the wealthy and would be paid for in part through steep cuts to Medicaid, despite widespread opposition. Those cuts were first fleshed out in a House budget blueprint earlier this year and are part of the budget bill from the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the text of which was unveiled on Sunday. But Medicaid cuts are not the only aspect of the bill drawing scrutiny.
"Giving giant tax breaks to billionaires while increasing electric bills for American families is wrong. Republicans are sacrificing America's energy dominance while setting up a 'pay to play' scheme for polluters to bribe the Trump Administration to obtain energy permits," said Energy Subcommittee ranking member Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) on Monday. "Dismantling our landmark Inflation Reduction Act will kill jobs, hurt businesses, and drive-up Americans' energy costs."
The legislation includes a provision that would allow energy developers to access an expedited permitting review if they pay $10 million or one percent of the anticipated cost of the construction of the project.
Another provision would have companies applying to export or import natural gas pay a nonrefundable $1 million fee and in return have their project "deemed to be in the public interest."
"The idea that corporate polluters can pay a fee to freely pollute our communities is beyond the pale," said Mahyar Sorour, a director of the Beyond Fossil Fuels Policy at the Sierra Club, on Monday.
"While it slashes much-needed support for clean energy and climate resilience, it would allow fossil fuel companies to pay to get their project approved. That's not just wrong, it's un-American," said Alexandra Adams, chief policy advocacy officer at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
According to E&E News, the legislation aims to rescind "the unobligated balance" of IRA funds for multiple Department of Energy programs, such as money meant for the Tribal Energy Loan Guarantee Program.
"Republicans just proposed cutting thousands of jobs, billions of dollars in clean energy funding, and billions of dollars in healthcare funding from their own districts. Why? Because Big Oil and healthcare CEOs told them to. This is not how a democracy should function. This is oligarchy in action," saidSunrise Movement executive director Aru Shiney-Ajay in a statement on Monday.
"Young people fought tooth and nail for the funding now on the chopping block," added Shiney-Ajay, invoking the organizing and activism that went into pressuring lawmakers to pass the IRA.
Republicans are also planning to rescind the unobligated balances from the Environmental Protection Agency's Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, an IRA program that is supposed to support clean energy projects primarily for historically marginalized and low-income communities, per E&E.
What's more, according to E&E, the plan would go after a variety of IRA programs, such as those designed to reduce air pollution at schools and ports and limit emissions from diesel engines. Also it takes aim at the IRA's methane fee, which levies a fee on oil and gas companies who produce too much planet-warming methane.
"House Republicans are bending over backwards to give handouts to big polluters while their constituents pay the price of worse pollution and higher energy bills," said Sorour. "This is a terrible bill for the American people. The House should get their priorities straight and reject this proposal."
"It happened," said progressive online political commentator Hasan Piker on Sunday in a cryptic post on the social media site X—one that suggested he wasn't altogether surprised when he was detained for several hours by border agents at a Chicago airport after flying back to the U.S. from France.
He explained to his 1.5 million followers later that he had been stopped by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents "for additional questioning."
"I'm out, it wasn't that bad," said Piker. "Very strange experience overall though."
Piker shares his commentary primarily on YouTube and the streaming platform Twitch, and detailed the ordeal for his followers on both platforms.
The questions over the two-hour period suggested that the Trump administration has been following Piker's commentary, which has recently included vehement criticism of U.S. support for Israel as it bombards and starves the people of Gaza.
"They straight up tried to get something out of me that I think they could use to basically detain me permanently," Piker said. "[The agent] kept saying stuff like, do you like Hamas? Do you support Hamas? Do you think Hamas is a terror group or a resistance group?"
Piker shared his story as TikTok creator Savannah Pinder, who makes anti-Trump videos and clothing, said publicly that she had been detained at Miami International Airport after passing through Global Entry.
Pinder was taken to several different screening rooms and questioned about her work, travel history, and her father's citizenship status. Her father was born in Panama and became a U.S. citizen. Pinder, is a U.S. citizen and was born and raised in the United States.
"They asked me to provide my social media accounts for them to go through my TikTok, my Snapchat, my Instagram, and my Facebook, as well as show them how much I was making daily on TikTok," Pinder said. "If you are a United States citizen, you still have the chance of being detained coming back into the United States right now."
ICE detains woman who runs anti-Trump TikTok—she is U.S. citizen born & raised.
She was detained for hours as agents searched phone & social media—even demanding financial statements on how much she earns on TikTok.
Journalist Séamus Malekafzali, whose work has been published in The Nation, The Intercept, and other publications, said he has had several experiences like the one described by Piker at Chicago O'Hare International Airport.
"Been pulled into secondary screening many times and O'Hare CBP had the most involved and specific questions about Gaza for me by far," saidMalekafzali.
Ari Cohn, lead counsel for tech policy at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, said the incidents show that Immigration and Customs Enforcement and CBP "are the 'enemies domestic' that federal officials swear an oath to defend against."
"No U.S. citizen should be detained by law enforcement, at the border or anywhere, because of their protected speech," said Cohn.
Piker said he believes border agents are detaining and questioning commentators and journalists "to try to create an environment of fear, to try to get people like myself or at least like others that would be in my shoes, that don't have that same level of security, to shut the fuck up."
The incidents follow the abductions by federal immigration agents of foreign student protesters whom the Trump administration has pushed to deport for speaking out against U.S. support for Israel and expressing support for Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
Immigration agents "flagging and detaining one of the U.S.'s largest left-wing voices for their political opinions while the Trump administration suggests they might suspend habeas corpus does not portend well for the future," said lawyer and writer Alex Peter.
