The campaign is among the largest anti-ICE protests by workers at a single company since federal agents shot and killed two people in Minneapolis last month. More Than 880 employees and contractors working for Google signed a petition this week calling on the company to disclose and cancel any contracts it may have with US immigration authorities . In the letter unveiled on Friday, the workers said they are "vehemently opposed" to Google's dealings with the Department of Homeland Security, which includes Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). "We object to the technology we build being used to power state violence around the world," a Google software engineer, who declined to give their name out of fear of retaliation, told reporters on Friday. "I stand to benefit from other people's suffering, which I find abhorrent and I refuse to be a quiet participant in that system," added a second Google staffer, who went by Alex. Google declined to comment on the petition's demands.

A "quiet crisis" is emerging at the U.S.-Canada border, as one expert proposes an unconventional solution to fight human smuggling: leveraging advanced technologies like artificial intelligence. While national attention is largely fixed on the southern border, an increasingly concerning situation is unfolding along the country's northern border, said Jon Brewton, the founder and CEO of Data2 and a U.S. Air Force Veteran. "U.S. Customs and Border Patrol has seen a fairly alarming increase in illegal crossings, drug trafficking, and even encountering individuals on the terrorist watch list," he told Fox News Digital. "And as difficult as securing the southern border has been, the northern border is twice as long." While the vast majority of illegal crossings happen at the southern border, officials have been warning for years that the northern line has seen an increase.

Many of DJI's drones including its latest consumer products are being held up at the US border, the manufacturer said in a blog post today. It appears to be a customs matter and not related to proposed US legislation to ban DJI products (the Countering CCP Drones Act) currently in US Congress. However, the holdup means that sales of DJI's latest Air 3S drone will be delayed, the company told The Verge. "The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has cited the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), as the reason for the current holdups," the DJI ViewPoints team wrote. "This assertion made against DJI, however, is entirely unfounded and categorically false."

Former El Paso U.S. Marshal Robert Almonte reacts to the latest report on border encounters from CBP. FIRST ON FOX: Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa., is seeking information from top border and homeland security agencies about the potential threat posed by drones operated by terrorist groups and cartels at the southern border amid heightened awareness of a terror threat in recent weeks. Grassley sent letters to Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) citing reports that Mexican cartels have increased their use of the drones at both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. "These drones are used by the cartels to carry out targeted assassinations and violent attacks by dropping explosives in Mexico, monitor and gain reconnaissance on the movements of U.S. Border Patrol agents and other U.S. law enforcement officers, and track the progress of their smugglers illegally crossing into the U.S.," he said. Senator Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, wrote to Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Department of Homeland Security has noted the use of drones by cartels as a threat to the U.S. in its FY 24 threat assessment.

The Trump administration has reportedly awarded a contract to a California-based tech startup to set up hundreds of "autonomous surveillance towers" along the U.S.-Mexico border to aid its immigration enforcement efforts. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced on Thursday that the towers, which use artificial intelligence and imagery to identify people and vehicles, were now a "program of record" for the agency and that 200 would be deployed along the southern border by 2022. CBP did not mention the contract in its announcement, though the Washington Post reported that the effort includes a five-year agreement with Anduril Industries, a tech startup backed by investors such as Peter Thiel. Anduril executives told the Post that the deal is worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The company, which specializes in AI and other technologies, is valued at $1.9 billion, according to Bloomberg News.

It's no secret that Palmer Luckey's Anduril Industries has been developing a "virtual wall" to heighten national security -- he's been at it for the better part of three years. That work (for better or worse) has finally paid off. According to a new report from the Washington Post, the Trump administration awarded Anduril a lucrative five-year contract to erect hundreds of AI-powered surveillance towers along the U.S.-Mexico border by 2022. "These towers give agents in the field a significant leg up against the criminal networks that facilitate illegal cross-border activity," said Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott in a statement released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Anduril's hardware almost looks like it belongs in orbit, rather than sitting amid desert scrub.

The'biometric verification of identities' of all travelers crossing US borders is set for a 2021 start date, with Homeland Security scrambling to get the system in place after Trump issued an executive order in March 2017 expediting the process

SAN FRANCISCO -- A Texas nonprofit that helps immigrants has rejected a $250,000 donation from Salesforce, saying it won't be part of what it calls an attempt by the company to buy its way out of an ethical quandary over its contracts with Customs and Border Protection. The decision is part of the unprecedented backlash tech companies are facing -- particularly from their own employees -- over work with government agencies that these employees say violate ethical standards. In recent months, employees at Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Salesforce have pressured their senior management to drop deals with government agencies. The immigration nonprofit's decision follows an open letter to CEO Marc Benioff in June signed by more than 650 of Salesforce's own staff that asked it to cancel its contract to supply software and tools to manage border activities to Customs and Border Protection. Salesforce said it doesn't work with CBP regarding separating families and kept the contract.

Salesforce Chairman and CEO Marc Benioff at Salesforce Dreamfest 17. Employees at Salesforce sent a letter to Benioff asking him to reconsider the company's contract with U.S. Customs and Border Protection. SAN FRANCISCO – Employees at Salesforce signed a letter to their CEO Marc Benioff asking him to reconsider the company's contracts with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the latest in a string of staff protests at major tech companies over government contracts. More than 650 employees signed the letter, according to Bloomberg and Buzzfeed, which obtained a copy. The letter says Salesforce employees are aware that certain company products and tools are being used by CBP, and they are particularly concerned about Salesforce's Service Cloud being used in border activities. "Given the inhumane separation of children from their parents currently taking place at the border, we believe that our core value of Equality is at stake and that Salesforce should re-examine our contractual relationship with CBP and speak out against its practices," the letter said.

A former Facebook executive is spearheading a new Silicon Valley startup that hopes to build a digital wall at the US-Mexico border. Palmer Luckey, the 25-year-old who led Facebook's virtual reality unit Oculus, has now launched a firm focused on merging defense and consumer tech. Called Anduril Industries, the company is now working with Customs and Border Protection in California to test out its virtual wall, which has already found some success, according to Wired. Anduril has also set up several towers, equipped with antennas and other sensors, at a ranch in Texas to test out out the technology. There, the firm has constructed three, portable 32ft towers with radar, antenna and laser-enhanced cameras, as part of a system its calling Lattice, Wired noted. Lattice can pick up on and identify motion that's as far as two miles away.