The Surveillance State's Eyes at the U.S. Border
What Next | Daily News and Analysis
Slate Podcasts
4.3 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 11 July 2018
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this week’s If Then, Will Oremus and April Glaser talk to Dr. Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, a professor of political science and policy at George Mason University and an expert on immigration and security at the U.S.-Mexico border. They discuss how technology contractors benefit from working with the government to carry out its immigration policies — while others suffer from the ever-broadening surveillance state. And they examine the concept of a “virtual border wall,” and what that might look like in reality.
The hosts are then joined by Brian Brackeen, CEO of a face recognition company called Kairos. Kairos provides face recognition technology to businesses, but Brackeen warns that putting that same kind of software and data in the hands of law enforcement is a very bad idea. Oremus and Glaser ask him why that is, and what he sees as the more appropriate uses for a controversial cutting-edge technology.
Podcast production by Max Jacobs.
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If Then is presented by Slate and Future Tense, a collaboration among Arizona State University, New America, and Slate. Future Tense explores the ways emerging technologies affect society, policy, and culture. To read more, follow us on Twitter and sign up for our weekly newsletter.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to If Then, the show about how technology is changing our lives and our future. |
| 0:10.6 | I'm Will Arrimus. |
| 0:11.9 | And I'm April Glazer. |
| 0:23.8 | Hey, everybody, welcome to If Then. |
| 0:29.4 | We're coming to you from Slate and Future Tense, a partnership between Slate, Arizona State University, and New America. |
| 0:42.4 | On today's show, we'll be joined by Guadalupe Correa Cabrera, a professor of political science and policy at George Mason University, and a global fellow of the Latin American program at the Wilson Center, where she studies security at the U.S.-Mexico border. |
| 0:53.8 | Horific stories have flooded the news and social media in recent weeks about the Trump administration's former policy to separate families at the border and how that's led to more than 2,000 children being taken from their parents. |
| 0:56.1 | Now whole families are being detained. |
| 1:01.6 | Much has been discussed around the private facilities where individuals, including minors who cross the border, are housed, |
| 1:05.3 | which includes large tents and makeshift cages inside of warehouses. |
| 1:14.7 | We'll discuss another private industry that's working with the government to carry out its immigration policies, the tech industry. We'll look at the billion-dollar contracts that have been awarded to build a so-called virtual border wall between Mexico and the United States and what such a wall might look like. |
| 1:20.0 | We also have a second interview for you on today's show. We'll be joined later by Brian Brackeen, |
| 1:25.0 | CEO of a face recognition company called Kairos. |
| 1:30.5 | Kairos provides face recognition technology to businesses. |
| 1:35.2 | But Brachine warns that putting the same kind of software and data in the hands of law enforcement is a very bad idea. |
| 1:37.0 | We'll ask him why that is and what he sees as the more appropriate uses for a controversial |
| 1:41.4 | cutting-edge technology. |
| 1:43.1 | All right, welcome to the show. |
| 1:44.3 | We have a special episode this week. |
| 1:46.0 | In lieu of our normal discussion of the week's news, we have a pair of interviews with expert |
| 1:50.0 | guests on related themes. |
| 1:52.0 | Our interview with Guadalupe Correa Cabrera was recorded on June 26th, and our interview |
... |
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