cross-posted from: https://infosec.pub/post/48527113

The "KIDS Act" Is an Age Surveillance Bill, Take Action. Tell Congress to reject this age-gating bill

Within the next week, Congress is preparing to vote on the KIDS Act, a sprawling package of legislation that seeks to control Americans’ web browsing and private messaging. The package includes a revised version of the Kids Online Safety Act, or KOSA, combined with a collection of other internet bills, study bills, reporting requirements, and new regulations. Instead of debating any of these proposals on their merits, lawmakers are attempting to move them all at once under an ultra-expedited process. 

The package of cobbled-together bills is a mess, with different age-gating schemes for different services, using different standards. It’s a lot of complexity, and a lot of legal risk. Faced with that, many companies will conclude that the safest option is restrictive age-checking practices across their entire platforms.

Buried inside the KIDS Act are provisions that will push online services to verify all users’ ages, require government-directed moderation policies for online speech, and even create new rules about private and encrypted communications. While supporters continue to claim this bill protects minors online, its requirements come at the expense of privacy, free expression, and the ability of people of all ages to use the internet without revealing sensitive data.

The Supreme Court cleared Trump to end Temporary Protected Status for Haiti and Syria, putting 356K at risk of deportation.

cross-posted from: https://infosec.pub/post/48525399

When I wake in the morning, there are no signs of the new day. There are no windows in my cell, and a light has been on all night. Like one long nightmare, it can be difficult to keep track of when one day ends and the next begins. And so life goes inside the California City Detention Facility. It feels like the land of the living dead.

...

Having been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement for nearly two years, I’ve come to learn that this sort of lawlessness lies at the core of the U.S. detention system. The rule of law does not exist inside detention for me or the countless others I’ve met during my time in ICE custody.

When I entered the country in 2024 from Belize, I was fleeing persecution. Where I expected to find refuge and due process in the U.S., I’ve instead found myself imprisoned. When I claimed asylum at the border, I was subject to mandatory detention, pursuant to Section 1225 of U.S. Code.

Over the last two years, I’ve been transferred between three detention centers: first at the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego, then at Golden State Annex in McFarland and finally here in California City. All of these detention facilities have in common a fundamental disregard for our health and well-being.

At California City, I have both witnessed and personally experienced negligent treatment and the routine violation of our rights. I assume much of the misconduct here stems from private prison corporations’ motivation to make as much money as possible. When a corporation — in this case, CoreCivic — sees us as dollar signs instead of people, it’s easy to understand why they cut corners at the expense of our safety.

Here at California City, when I suffered from tonsillitis, I was never taken to the medical unit despite my repeated requests for treatment. Most others I have met along the way have also faced medical neglect, and many have been left worse off than myself.

Last November, when I stood up for others’ medical care — including those in need of urgent treatment and medications for conditions like heart disease and diabetes — I and several others were sent to solitary confinement in retaliation.

As lawsuits and investigations have demonstrated, severe medical neglect in ICE custody is a systemic problem. This medical neglect is particularly worrisome amid a record-high numbers of deaths occurring across ICE’s detention system. The death rate has more than doubled under the current administration, according to a recent Reuters analysis.

In response to a lawsuit brought **by some of us inside, a federal court ordered ICE to provide basic healthcare like access to emergency services, specialists and prescription medications. As far as I can tell as a detained person, ICE and prison officials have so far failed to comply with this order.

Medical neglect is not our only problem here. CoreCivic, like other for-profit prison operators, pays detained people $1 a day to do cleaning jobs around the facility and other work. This is the only way many people can buy essential food and hygiene products from the commissary — yet another way CoreCivic profits.

There is little programming here, and our freedom of movement is severely restricted. We often spend more time each day inside our 8-by-8 cell than outside of it. The temperature goes from one extreme to the next, either too hot or too cold. Sometimes we are allowed up to one hour outside in the yard, but being in the middle of the desert under the hot sun, even this outdoor time provides little relief.

Recently, the detention center has been stricken by a drug problem. I fear it is a matter of when, not if, someone is the victim of a fatal overdose. And those in need of rehab are sent to solitary confinement — a dangerous response that seems to be used for any and every problem that staff refuse to address. On top of that, officers often work 18-hour shifts. CoreCivic and ICE have created a precarious environment in which we are all pushed to our limits.

Simply put, this place is hell on Earth. I have come to believe that everything here is designed to break you, to make you sign your own deportation order and give up on your case.

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I will continue to advocate for myself and others, alongside allies beyond these walls. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from — we all have the right to live and be treated with fairness and basic human dignity.

Brady Tillett is detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the California City Detention Facility in Kern County.

cross-posted from: https://infosec.pub/post/48526084

Senate Bill 153 includes multiple provisions targeting immigrant communities in North Carolina:

• Requiring several state law enforcement agencies to enter into 287(g) agreements with ICE
• Removing governmental immunity for local governments that violate the state’s anti-sanctuary law
• Requiring state agencies to take additional, unnecessary steps to ensure that undocumented people are not accessing public benefits
• Preventing UNC Schools from passing policies that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement

SB 153 is a blatant attack on immigrant communities. It forces state law enforcement to contribute to the federal government's cruel deportation campaign and doubles down on preventing local governments and universities from working to protect our immigrant communities.

Donald Trump’s campaign to rebrand the Pentagon as the Department of War won another victory on Wednesday when Republicans on the panel that controls military funding voted to formally endorse the renaming.

The House Appropriations Committee adopted the change during deliberations on its $1.1 trillion defense funding bill. The vote marks the third panel to agree to permanently ditch the existing nearly 80-year-old Department of Defense name.

Appropriators voted 32-25 along party lines to adopt a Republican-only slate of amendments to the Pentagon funding bill that also targeted diversity and inclusion efforts, abortion and other wedge issues that have spurred partisan rancor on the influential spending panel in recent years.

“If a state refuses to turn their absentee voter list over to the federal government, will the Postal Service still mail their ballots under this proposal rule?” Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), the committee’s top Democrat, asked Steiner.

“Under our proposed regulation, no,” Steiner replied.

Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., sent letters to Curtis E. Wood of Atlantic Industrial Coatings, LLC, and John Cafaro of Green Water Solutions, LLC, demanding answers by July 8.