Shayak Sarkar (University of California, Davis – School of Law) and Josh Rosenthal have posted Database(d) Immigration Enforcement (Cardozo Law Review (forthcoming)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
Federal agencies collect some of our most personal data, with promises of security. Yet the Department of Homeland Security has begun to use data from across federal agencies in its effort to pursue and apprehend migrants. This data use—from the Internal Revenue Service to the Department of Health and Human Services—compromises statutory privacy safeguards and reasoned decision-making in pursuit of immigration enforcement.
This Article describes this use of federal data and databases for immigration enforcement. Behind masked men who flout the Fourth Amendment with physical seizures, bureaucrats fuel those efforts with data flows.
Much-maligned information silos, and other data safeguards could blunt this enlistment of data. This Article examines how both public and private plaintiffs can leverage privacy and consumer law to rescue purloined data, alongside community-based interventions. Data must respect the agency borders erected by Congress—regardless of presidential edicts to the contrary, and perhaps through democratic data resistance.
Recommended!
To receive new posts from Legal Theory Blog by email, get a free subscription to Legal Theory Stack.
Lawrence Solum