Tom Fudge : Surveillance is not a nice word. And it's not something we want our government doing to us. But when you cross the border from Mexico, back into the U.S., a border guard asks you questions, looks you in the eye and expects to see some form of I.D. Is that surveillance? Maybe it is, but most of us, by now, consider it to be customary and acceptable.
The U.S.-Mexican border is now home to some new forms of surveillance, as politicians feel voter pressure to make the border more secure. Surveillance cameras, bio-metrics (that's face and fingerprint recognition) and RFID (that's radio frequency I.D.) are all in use. It may not be the kind of thing the Constitution prohibits, but it is the kind of thing that makes civil libertarians nervous.
The Center for Ethics forum on border technology will be held on Wednesday, July 2, 2008, from 5:30-7pm, at the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center in Balboa Park.
Guest :
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Andrea Guerrero , lawyer with the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties .
