Lawyers' Perspectives on Surveillance in U.S. Immigration Enforcement

ABSTRACT Increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) and big data in surveillance by the U.S. immigration enforcement has led to important ethical considerations. This paper aims to explore the extent to which immigration lawyers are aware of surveillance technologies in their work with immigrants and the lawyers' potential concerns about surveillance technologies. Through a thematic analysis of six semi‐structured interviews with U.S. immigration lawyers and legal practitioners, this research reveals three overarching themes that describe lawyers' perspectives on surveillance: surveillance knowledge, surveillance assemblage, and surveillance implications. These themes are rooted in lawyers' understandings, experiences, and encounters with surveillance in their daily work with immigrant communities and contribute to existing work at the intersection of surveillance, information studies, and immigration. This work calls on information scholars to explore and expand on understandings of surveillance within U.S. immigration enforcement.