PapersPlease: “Continuous screening” means continuous surveillance and control

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https://papersplease.org/wp/2017/12/15/continuous-screening-means-continuous-surveillance-and-control/

Today the Identity Project joins more than 20 other
government-accountability and civil liberties organizations in a joint
letter opposing S. 2192, the “SECURE Act of 2017”, which  was
introduced in the Senate earlier this month and immediately placed on
the Senate calendar for a floor vote at any time.

The name of this bill is Newspeak. It is not about security, but about
surveillance and control of immigrants, borders, and international
travelers, including  U.S. citizens.

The coalition letter to members of Congress that we signed today
focuses on Sections 6002-6003 (pp. 488-499) of S. 2192,  which would
authorize the Secretary of Homeland Security, Secretary of State, or
Attorney General to exempt their respective Federal departments from
the Administrative Procedure Act,  the Privacy Act, and the Paperwork
Reduction Act with respect to a wide range of border control and
surveillance activities.

The Administrative Procedure Act (APA) spells out the details of
Constititionally-required “due process” as it applies to
administrative decision-making by Federal agencies. Decisions
adversely affecting individuals’ rights made without complying with
the APA would be highly likely to violate Constitutional norms of due
process.

Exemption from the Privacy Act  would allow the creation and
maintenance, without notice, of secret Federal government databases
about U.S. citizens, and the use of secret, unreliable, uncorrected,
and/or irrelevant data as the basis for decisions to deny U.S.
citizens their rights. These practices would also be likely to be
unconstitutional.

Many of the provisons of S. 2192 are copied from S. 1757, an earlier
omnibus “border control” bill we criticized when it was introduced in
September.

Like its predecessor S. 1757, S. 2192 incorporates a patently
unconstitutional “Passport Revocation Act” (Section 1632, pp.
446-448), which would purport to authorize revocation or refusal to
issue or renew a U.S. passsport, and the prohibition of departure from
or return to the U.S., on the guilt-by-association basis of (1) an
extrajudicial  administrative designation of an organization as a
“foreign terrorist organization”, and (2) an extrajudicial
administrative determination by the State Department that a U.S.
citizen is “affiliated” with such an organization (without the law
defining the meaning of “affiliated”).

The number of references to the “unreviewable discretion” of officials
and agencies has increased from 14 in S. 1757 to 17 in S. 2192.

S. 2192 also includes provisions from S. 1757 mandating government
monitoring of activities and ideas expressed on social media, and the
use of this surveillance data for making visa decisions and for
“continuous screening” (continuous surveillance and control) of
immigrants, foreign residents (including permanent residents), and
foreign-citizen visitors to the U.S.

As the letter we sent today concludes, “We oppose these provisions in
S.2192 and any other border security bill.”



Who We Are

THE IDENTITY PROJECT (IDP)

The right to travel freely in their own country is a right that has
been taken by Americans as their birthright.  This right is basic,
fundamental, and necessary for the free exercise of many of our other
protected rights.  Identity-based domestic security programs condition
our mobility to freely assemble, associate, speak, and exchange ideas
upon the government’s permission to do so.

Demands on citizens to ‘show their ID‘ have spread from airports to
all major forms of long distance domestic public transport.  Some of
these ID security programs check people against secret government
lists.  Some of these programs are simply tests of the traveler’s
obedience.  Dissent through public protest is in danger of being
chilled by the fear of ending up on government lists.  We are
witnessing the advent of a national ID card, passed by Congress as the
Real ID Act.

With private data aggregators being used for ‘national security’
purposes; and the ability to use technology to consolidate a wealth of
personal information on citizens and have it accessed by both
governmental and private agencies, the right to be left alone is under
serious threat.

IDP shines a spotlight on these serious issues.

We are part of the First Amendment Project, a 501(c)(3) public
charity.  Donations are tax deductible.