In the South, where talk of freedom rings loudest, a new kind of threat is emerging — a digital one.

Texas and federal immigration agencies are building a surveillance system where borders are drawn by GPS signals and app notifications. ICE is increasingly relying on alternatives to detention, turning migrants into carriers of digital leashes, allowing authorities to track them like characters in a dystopian novel.

True, most subjects of this surveillance would probably have been incarcerated in days past, awaiting their day in court. But this version of freedom feels no different from a cell. A person who isn’t locked up still cannot move freely, work, or turn off their phone.

In........

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