EFF has built up a robust focus on digital civil liberties at the U.S.-Mexico border, including challenging the warrantless and suspicionless searches of electronic devices and the massive increase in surveillance infrastructure throughout the region. Our team has gathered firsthand knowledge of local tech concerns through a series of visits to communities on both sides of the border where we interviewed journalists and activists, and mapped and documented the proliferation of border surveillance tools. As a result of this work, EFF has created a traveling exhibit featuring information and photographs from several years of research and advocacy.
Join our panel featuring EFF Senior Staff Attorney Saira Hussain, EFF Senior Staff Attorney Hannah Zhao, journalist Lauren Markham, Senior Staff Attorney at Just Futures Law Daniel Werner, and migrant justice organizer Alex Mensing as they explore digital civil liberties at the U.S.-Mexico border and the work that brought the exhibit to life.
Hosted by the Internet Archive
Wednesday, April 9th, 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM Pacific
This event is IN-PERSON and FREE!
Accessibility
All areas of this space are wheelchair accessible, and the event will take place on the 1st and 2nd floors. There will be cocktail height round tables. Panelists will be using a microphone, so louder volumes are expected.
EFF is committed to improving accessibility for our events. If you need accommodations or have accessibility questions prior to the event, please contact events@eff.org; during the event, please ask any EFF staff for assistance.
Travel
Internet Archive is a four minute walk from the Geary Blvd & Park Presidio Blvd or California St & Park Presidio Blvd bus stops. Street parking is available, with more on Clement and Park Presidio. Paid parking is available nearby on 9th Avenue between Cleement St and Geary Boulevard.
Event Expectations
EFF is dedicated to a harassment-free experience for everyone, and all participants are encouraged to view our full Event Expectations.
About the Speakers
Hannah Zhao
Hannah is a senior staff attorney who focuses on criminal justice, privacy, and cybersecurity issues, and is part of the Coders’ Rights Project. Prior to joining EFF, she represented criminal defendants on appeal in state and federal courts in New York, Illinois, and Missouri, and also worked at the human rights NGO, Human Rights in China. While pursuing her law degree at Washington University in St. Louis, Hannah represented indigent defendants and refugee applicants in Durban, South Africa, and studied international law at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. In college, Hannah studied Computer Science and Management at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Saira Hussain
Saira Hussain is a Senior Staff Attorney who litigates at the intersection of racial and immigrant justice, government surveillance, and technology. Among her work at EFF, she has represented U.S. travelers challenging warrantless and suspicionless border searches of their electronic devices, protesters for racial justice challenging police's use of live camera monitoring of their movement, and immigrant rights advocates challenging California law enforcement's out-of-state sharing of automated license plate reader data, including with ICE. Previously, Saira was a Staff Attorney at the Asian Law Caucus, where she focused on disentangling federal immigration enforcement from local law enforcement. Saira received her undergraduate and law degrees from UC Berkeley.
Lauren Markham
Lauren Markham is an award-winning California-based journalist covering migration and other justice issues. Her work regularly appears in outlets such as The New York Times, Mother Jones, The Atlantic, Harper's and The Guardian. She is the author of two books about immigration: The Far Away Brothers: Two Young Migrants and the Making of an American Life (2017) and A Map of Future Ruins: On Borders and Belonging. Her story on border surveillance appeared in Mother Jones last summer.
Daniel Werner
Daniel is a Senior Staff Attorney at Just Futures Law. His work focuses on providing legal support to grassroots groups and movements to challenge government retaliation, surveillance, and criminalization, including through strategic litigation. Daniel has been working with immigrant communities for over a decade and prior to joining JFL was a deportation defense attorney at Dolores Street Community Services. He received a BA from UCLA and a JD from UC Irvine School of Law.
Alex Mensing
Alex Mensing is a migrant justice organizer who has faced criminalization and surveillance efforts by the United States and Mexican governments for accompanying migrant caravans and acting in solidarity with migrants facing human rights abuses. Mensing has organized legal assistance for people seeking asylum at the US border, participated in campaigns to stop police abuse against migrants, and supported people organizing inside immigration detention centers. After being repeatedly targeted along with many other migrant rights defenders for secondary inspection and interrogation by U.S. border agents, Mensing and two co-plaintiffs sued several U.S. federal agencies. He currently works with the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice.
