Friday, Feb 27, 2026 | 11:00am – 2:00pm PT
World Affairs Center
312 Sutter Street, San Francisco, CA
Register at Eventbrite:
Livestream:
Event Overview:
This in-person media briefing will explore critical questions surrounding the dramatic expansion of surveillance technology, from data dragnets to facial recognition systems, driven by the mass deportation campaign. While the focus has been on the brutality of ICE raids, there’s growing awareness that the implications reach far beyond — most recently the requests that tech firms share the names of online critics, as well as demands for state voting records, public benefits data, and tax information. The panelists will examine the potential consequences on free speech, political participation and democratic safeguards.
We are holding the event in San Francisco, the home of AI technology, which has, so far, been spared the ICE surge that is being witnessed in Minneapolis and other cities. On October 23, 2025, Daniel Lurie, the mayor of San Francisco, announced that “the president told him clearly that he was calling off any plans for a federal deployment in San Francisco.” Despite several FOIA attempts by local media, no details of this conversation have been released, which raises important questions of transparency and accountability.
The event will include two panels: one mapping the dramatic expansion of surveillance technology and the second hearing from activists on the ground. A light lunch will be served.
Guest Speakers:
Panel 1
- Jacob Ward, Journalist and Author of In the Loop: How Technology is Creating a World without Choices and How to Fight Back
- Ariel G Ruiz Soto, Senior Policy Analyst, Migration Policy Institute
- Juan Sebastián Pinto, Storyteller in the AI Industry
Panel 2
- Jacob Snow, Technology and Civil Liberties Attorney, ACLU of Northern California
- Aaron Peskin, former SF Supervisor & President of the Board of Supervisors
- Rebecca Gerny, Special Projects Coordinator, East Bay Sanctuary
- Tim Redmond, Editor & Investigative Reporter, 48 Hills
Contact
- Jaya Padmanabhan, jaya@americancommunitymedia.org
- Li Lovett, llovett@americancommunitymedia.org
