In 1798, the Federalists passed the Sedition Act, making "false, scandalous, and malicious" criticism of the government a crime. The language was deliberately vague. Ten people went to prison, including a congressman who called President Adams pompous. The Act lasted two years before public outrage destroyed it.
In 2025, we have Investigative Case Management, ICE's digital nervous system that reduces human beings to data points, risk scores, and removal priorities.
New USCIS guidelines declare "anti-American activity" grounds for denial of any immigration benefit. The Trump Administration announced its goal to review status documents for 55 million foreign nationals currently in the U.S.
ICM has become a digital Sedition Act that never expires, never forgets, and never forgives.
The system enables 656 arrests daily. National Guard patrol Washington DC. Marines occupy Los Angeles. Children hide from school. And unlike the original Sedition Act, this one learns.
On September 25, 2025, it evolves into something worse.
The Machine Already Running
Imagine a typical naturalization applicant. She sits in a USCIS field office. Eight years of tax returns in her folder. Zero criminal history. The nursing supervisor at work wrote her a glowing reference. Her citizenship interview should be routine.
The officer's screen displays her ICM assessment. Red text blinks: "Anti-American activity identified."
The system has been watching her for years. Not through wiretaps or surveillance vans, but through the continuous mining of data streams that define modern existence. Her Instagram posts. Her Venmo transactions. Her daughter's school enrollment forms. ICM doesn't just read databases. It inhabits them, swimming through petabytes of information, connecting dots humans would never see.
On August 19, 2025, USCIS updated their Policy Manual, making "anti-American activity" an overwhelmingly negative factor in all discretionary decisions. The definition remains deliberately vague, just like "false, scandalous, and malicious" in 1798.
But unlike the Sedition Act, which required a jury trial, ICM makes its judgments in microseconds, deep in server farms where no lawyer can cross-examine an algorithm.
The Architecture of Forever
Peter Thiel, Palantir's founder, wrote in 2009: "I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible." For a deeper analysis of Thiel's "Dark Enlightenment" philosophy, see "The Techno-Feudalist Convergence."
He's invested millions building systems that function beyond democratic oversight. (Apparently, he's not sure the human race should continue to exist.)
ICM is that philosophy made code.
JD Vance, now Vice President, worked at Thiel's investment firm. Thiel gave him $15 million for his Senate race. The network extends throughout government: former Thiel associates in key positions, ideological allies writing regulations.
Democrats use ICM too. Obama's DHS expanded these systems. Biden renewed the contracts. They adjust parameters but won't dismantle architecture they depend on.
This is the perfect crime: Thiel funds politicians who hire Thiel's companies to build systems that identify threats based on criteria Thiel's ideology defines.
The Human Cost
The Cato Institute found 65% of ICE detainees have no criminal convictions. Among those with convictions, 93% were never convicted of violent offenses. ICM doesn't hunt criminals. It manufactures suspects.
The system affects 16.7 million people in mixed-status families. Police report 50% increases in unsolved crimes because survivors won't report, knowing ICM processes their data. Healthcare workers, 18% of them immigrants, avoid hospitals where they work.
ICM has made everyone less safe by making data itself dangerous.
Workforce dropped 20-45% in Ventura County. Crop losses reach $7 billion. Food prices rose 5-12% statewide within three months.
The federal government now spends 12 times more on immigration enforcement than on labor standards protection.
The Ratchet That Never Loosens
The original Alien and Sedition Acts lasted two years. Except one piece: the Alien Enemies Act, which survived dormant until World War II, when it sent 120,000 Japanese Americans to camps.
That law still exists: 50 U.S.C. §§ 21-24. Now it operates through ICM, continuously running, constantly learning.
The emergency never ends because ICM defines its own threats, predicts its own criminals, justifies its own existence.
On September 25, 2025, ImmigrationOS launches. The $29.8 million contract expands ICM into something unprecedented: a system that doesn't just watch immigrants but learns from every interaction, predicts behavior, and automates enforcement.
ImmigrationOS will integrate with state DMVs, employment databases, health records, education systems. It will know when someone changes jobs, visits a doctor, enrolls a child in school. Each data point feeds the algorithm. Each algorithm feeds the enforcement.
The Revolution We Need
The Sedition Act died because Americans refused to accept it. Newspapers published in defiance. Juries acquitted defendants. The Federalist Party collapsed. Democracy reasserted itself through collective rejection.
ICM can die too. But only if we understand what we're fighting. Not individual policies but an algorithmic nervous system. Not temporary laws but permanent code.
The machine remembers everything. In 35 days, it gets smarter. What we do now determines whether that intelligence meets resistance or surrender.
Unless we make it remember something else. Unless we make it remember that humans once refused to be reduced to risk scores. That democracy once meant more than algorithmic efficiency. That freedom and surveillance were once understood as incompatible.
The machine is already running. In 35 days, it accelerates.
The question isn't whether we can stop it. The question is whether we'll try.
References
[1] U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Contract Modification 70CTD022FR0000170. April 17, 2025. Contract value: $29.8 million.
[2] Executive Order 14159, "Protecting the American People Against Invasion." January 20, 2025.
[3] USCIS Policy Alert PA-2025-16, "Discretionary Factors in Immigration Benefit Requests." August 19, 2025.
[4] Dee, Thomas. "Immigration Raids and Student Absenteeism in California Central Valley." Stanford University/Hoover Institution. June 2025.
[5] U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "First 50 Days Enforcement Statistics." March 13, 2025. 32,809 administrative arrests.
[6] Miller, Stephen. White House Financial Disclosure. June 2025. Palantir holdings: $100,001-$250,000.
[7] Jain, Akash. Internal Palantir Communications. Obtained by 404 Media. April 2025.
[8] H.R. 1, Budget Reconciliation Act. July 4, 2025. Immigration enforcement allocation: $170 billion through 2029.
[9] Cato Institute. "Criminal Conviction Statistics of ICE Detainees." 2025. 65% have no criminal convictions.
[10] UC Davis Agricultural Impact Study. "Workforce Losses in California Agriculture." 2025. $3-7 billion in crop losses.
[11] Kaiser Family Foundation. "Mixed-Status Family Impact Assessment." 2025. 16.7 million affected individuals.
[12] Thiel, Peter. "The Education of a Libertarian." Cato Unbound. April 2009.
[13] Privacy Impact Assessment DHS/ICE/PIA-045(a), "ICE Investigative Case Management System." August 2021. [Note: No PIA exists for ImmigrationOS as of August 2025]
Kevin J. Andrews is an immigration lawyer and author exploring human-AI relations.
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