#Sierra tucson

[dietpillsanddietcoke]

Incarnation

Is the Devil incarnate in me?

Is this urgency to Die the Devil working in my mind,

or is it God's answer to the pain

I’ve tried so long not to claim?

Is the Devil incarnate in me?

perhaps this affliction 

is the deep-seeded conviction

that nothing can unremember 

unless I unremember me.

Is the Devil incarnate inside?

Has he evicted God from the caverns of my mind?

warped my hopes into ashes

let a plague run rampant

till I’m left with nothing and no options

except to kill the hurt with fire.

But if I disintegrate the pain

will I crumble under the shame?

of asking

how?

And asking

why?

did I ever end up this insane?

Is there a light in this Darkness

or has he made in me his home?

how can I demolish the Devil

without also taking my own?

Can a child of God be used as a pawn 

in this war I'm not sure can even be won?

is the Devil incarnate in me? 

do I live unalive 

or try to surmise

how to make what’s done be Undone 

and take leave?

have I fostered this Insanity?

welcomed the disease with open arms?

after one too many breakdowns

it's hard to prove the Devil wrong.

"choose happy,"

"cheer up,"

"you can pray this away,"

(but will God even answer after how far I've strayed?)

the pastors say "yes"

and the priests say "confess"

I ask what Guilt to divulge 

when the done that's been done

was done when they did it to me?

is He truly incarnate inside?

people say I used to have beautiful eyes.

Now they're vast void and broken,

like the Devil, they've spoken.

Do I have what it takes to survive?

Does this Devil know what he's done?

created in me this pull that's impossible to shun?

breathed Death into spaces 

I used to hold vacant

hoping only for God and his son.

But what Holiness would encroach

into the wasted space beyond reproach?

What God would even try

in me to find

a single spot that’s not ticking time

expectant to die?

why would God seek a way

when I'm unwilling to pay?

Releasing the Devil, I fear

means staying alive’s a lot less clear

He’s scary, it’s true. 

I know that. It’s true. 

But what’s even more frightening is imagining

life wholly new.

See I’ve lived for years wanting only to die

Have these emphatic thoughts all along been Devil’s lies?

After years of our waltz

Of the Him pointing out faults

His taunts ceased to sting

And instead transformed into an Offering.

Because if I believe him first,

Then no one else could say worse.

And that’s a Devil that’s comfortable for me. 

But why should I stay?

So goes the refrain

To hear more from a God who proudly claims

Of floods

And famines

And wretched father-son-games?

No. I said no!

I don’t want to know

Don’t want to sow

The seeds of Sacred Silence, and so

Keep out, Holy One!

I seek no comfort in your show.

Your platitudes and play

Are not enough to make me stay.

For I’d rather die with the Devil 

Than lay false claim in your name.

[jillyjesson]

Mermaid Goddess Sierra is a strong and powerful creature. She makes magic and moves mountains. This series is from the original art: mixed media, acrylic and enamel paint, gold foil, paper and board. 

Original art by Jilly Jesson Fine Art & Design, Tucson, AZ - Copyright.

XO 🥰 Art By Jilly, Moksha Design ©

https://cowgirlmoksha.etsy.com/listing/1822751933

#mermaid #goddess #Sierra #beachlife #beachvibes #ocean #jillyjesson #original #painting #jewelry #jewelrydesigner #jewelrylover #gifts #holidayseason #holidayshopping #beach #ocean

[opspro2005]

From Bill Melugin at fox news: "BREAKING: 13,000 apprehensions of illegal immigrants by Border Patrol in Tucson, AZ sector in a single week. Large numbers of adult men from Africa crossing there this week, and mass street releases underway. Our team saw some dropped off at a Dollar Tree store in Sierra Vista."

For the record, 13k illegals are basically equal in size to one US Army Division. We're being invaded, and we're doing nothing about it. And we don't even know how many illegals have gotten away, undetected. At last count, over 40k chinese military-age males invaded, along with 1000's from African countries. If you can't see that these are sleeper cells, waiting to be activated, then I wish you the best of luck on your next trip to a shopping mall, or large sporting event, you're gonna need it.

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from Arizona Luminaria:

Miguel Gómez hovers his hands over the deep nail-scrapes on the fallen palm trunk. The nail-dragged furrows were etched into the wood by a jaguar. Quietly, patiently, Gómez studies the scratch marks. And then — nails down, fingers spread — he mimics the motion the cat made on the trunk. 

Gómez has followed jaguar tracks, investigated their kill sites, heard them roar, and �� on remote trail cameras — he’s captured them hundreds of times. But, outside of captivity, he’s never seen a living jaguar. “They’re smart,” Gómez said. “They know that it’s best for them to stay away from humans.”

As a wildlife biologist specializing in jaguars for 18 years, Gómez has spent the last 15 years at the Northern Jaguar Reserve in the southeastern part of the Mexican state of Sonora. Currently, at least a dozen jaguars, including two cubs and five or six females prowl the protected 56,000 acres managed by the Northern Jaguar Project. 

Gómez works in the remote and jagged Zetasora mountains and the surrounding canyons of the Sierra Madre mountain chain in eastern Sonora. It’s a region where jaguars have roamed for thousands of years. They were hunted to the brink of extinction but now, thanks to the work of Gómez and others at the Northern Jaguar Project, there are about a dozen regular jaguars living in or near the reserve. That work, which began in 2002, shows ranchers it’s in their interest to protect instead of hunt the jaguar, and is changing the way people think of both jaguars and the natural environment. 

Advocates consider the project a success and seek to expand jaguar protections to parts of Sonora and into Arizona and New Mexico. But federal regulators, a border wall completion and the cooperation of U.S. ranchers are all potential obstacles for growing the population on this side of the border.

Fighting to protect the jaguar has been an up-and-down battle for decades. As individual jaguars have loped across the border and into Arizona from México in the past decade and a half, advocacy groups have been taking to the courts to make sure they can survive. After land was set aside as protected habitat for jaguars in 2014, the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity sought to expand land area and push for reintroducing the big cats.       

After rejecting the center’s petition, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in May, eliminated nearly 65,000 acres of the 640,124-acre protected jaguar habitat in Southern Arizona. The agency followed a court order that came after a decade-long legal battle set off by a mining company challenging a previous designation of protected jaguar habitat. 

More recently, the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced plans to open roads in Arizona’s Chiricahua mountains, part of the Coronado National Forest. In response, the Center and four other environmental groups sued to give jaguars a chance to roam without vehicle traffic. 

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[winterpinetrees]

Into the Honest Desert (The Gap Years Part 18)

June 30th 2019

Las Vegas, NV

The road trip resumes. How does one write distinctive dialogue? How does one write (risky, involving an elf) romance? I can do neither and I must do both. 

……………

Brian has realized that this is the island of the lotus eaters, and he really hopes that doesn’t make him Odysseus. He and his friends have spent the past nine days on the Las Vegas Strip, a few manicured miles of electric lighting that promises safety with its high population density. They left once, rediscovered the mythical horror of plague, and then turned right back around. They need vaccines, they need allies, and they need a goddamn plan. Would Brian rather risk death than stay here and wait in luxury for the end of the world? Once he rode his bike off of a woodland trail and tumbled halfway down a mountain before stumbling back out with a mad grin. He’s been hurt in fights more times than he can count, and only learned to stop once he was on a school wrestling team and seeing blood meant pausing the match. Once he swung a crowbar at an enemy soldier so hard that its ribcage shattered and it bled out into the pavement. He’s more of an Achilles than an Odysseus. He’s not desperate to make it home. 

They’re in different rooms now than when they first arrived, for the sake of secrecy. The humans have a suite of their own again, but most nights one of those beds is empty. Brian is political-dynasty-rich and a varsity star. He knows that everyone up to and including the media think he’s some manipulative jerk for sleeping around. Zerada… Zerada is a very different sort of situation. The noblewoman might as well be Circe, minus the ability to turn ancient Greek sailors into wild animals. She’s ninety-four and basically a princess and if this is a horrible choice, then he is the one that’s going to pay. Honestly though, Brian’s already on a deadly quest to save the world. In the shadow of such a stupid, self-sacrificing decision, he’s not going to bother with second thoughts. If he gets turned into a pig, then Clay and Sierra can laugh at him once he’s back to normal. He’s having a good time. He’s not an idiot. He promises. 

They’re all ready to leave this place.  Clay’s been distraught since they saw the victims of Project Excalibur, and Sierra can’t stand the noise. The three of them have been working to see where other elves might be. If they like to hide in ruins and forgotten villages, then the American West is full of possible locations. There’s so few people out here. That’s the problem though. Marin and Zerada have been very clear that their enemies know exactly where they’ve been staying, they just won’t risk an attack because there are so many people nearby. They will be hunted the moment they step out into the desert. Brian remembers the attack in Vya, that little Nevada ghost town. Clay mentioned the place to a local in another town just before he was charmed, and he assumes that the boy told on him. Of course, they also need to gather allies while maintaining utter secrecy. 

Their only advantage is speed. Sierra’s car (The Audacity, for the years it took to make) is electric and the elves can charge it while they move. It can seat five, but it certainly won’t be as comfortable. She’s confident that it can handle going a hundred miles per hour, and that she can make repairs if it comes down to it. With illusion magic and relatively desolate highways, Brian’s told everyone to expect that pace. What that actually means is that they could get to Salt Lake City or Tucson by tonight, or easily reach the Atlantic Ocean by the Fourth of July. If they make up their plans as they go, the elves think they can outrun Ishtar’s forces. They’ll have to change roads often, travel constantly, and be ready for an ambush, but it’s possible. All of that sounds less stressful than finals week, so Brian’s down for it. 

They’re leaving today, even though Zerada has booked the rooms for another night. Hopefully they’ll be lost in the shuffle of tourism and the elven government won’t notice they’ve left. Even as they leave the city, disappearing into the crowd remains their only hope. The United States of America has a population of nearly three hundred and thirty million. That’s a third as large as the entire elven world. Without data sorting algorithms (advanced technology breaks down around magic. He’s heard Sierra talking with Marin about the details), tech like license plate readers and facial recognition becomes far less useful. They’d still totally have been caught by now without Marin’s illusions, and they still have to take precautions. 

The team has split up to do some tasks of their own. (jokes about not splitting up in a horror film have been shockingly rare).  Sierra and Marin are trying to check the car for tracking devices, though the pair might have gotten distracted. Clay’s taken on the job of organizing Marin’s messenger bag so they can actually find things in the heat of the moment, and Brian’s back in the room leaving a paper trail. On some level, he and his friends got into the colleges they did because of their fathers, but they are also very good at what they do. While Marin and Zerada ran off to wherever, the three of them scanned the entire Mountain Time Zone for places where elves might hide. There’s an old rocket testing facility in Utah surrounded by industrial waste, an abandoned site once used for creating chemical weapons, and, of course, thousands of square miles of not-quite untouched wilderness. He’s packing up most of their research, but leaving a little behind. Surely the elves will search their room soon. 

The plan is to stay in the desert for a while longer.  However, most of what he’s leaving behind points north to Idaho and Montana. He’s no spy (he’s just read a few books about them) so his work isn’t anything particularly good. He imagines a bunch of paper-pushing bureaucrats in a place that looks straight out of Middle Earth getting fed up with the misinformation, but they probably won’t fall for it. Either way, they’re heading for the hottest region in the nation, and he’s worried how well Marin can handle it. He’s agile, but weak. No, not weak. The elven prince is fragile. Brian remembers his carnival duel against him and how Marin never lost a game about accuracy or balance. He’s certainly an athlete, just not the same type as Brian. 

There is a quick beep from the door. He bolts upright, hand moving to the holster on his belt. The door swings open. A tall woman smiles back at him. Zerada Adust. Brian slowly moves his hand away from the gun and smiles. Her hair is loose and she wears a stylish cut-out shirt that is probably as red as his blushing face.

“Don’t go and do Ishtar’s job for her,” she laughs. “Are you almost done? It’s about high noon”. 

“Yeah, I was just checking to make sure we hadn’t left anything important behind”. He feels this need to justify himself to Zerada, but why shouldn’t he? She has the easy confidence of a person who knows she is the most important person on a team. It’s been a long time since Brian was the star. 

“Sorry to drag you away on this quest. There isn’t much where we’re going”.

“You have no idea how human you sound. I’m from a desert family, and they love this stuff”. She leans against a wall and says something with what he guesses is a fancy elven accent, “our burden as nobility to preserve the worlds”. 

“But you wanted more”. It’s not a question. He’s already heard about Zerada’s love for all things new and thrilling. It’s a desire he recognizes, and what drew him to her in the first place. 

“I do”. 

“So the desert is it?”

“So the desert it is”.  

He gathers the few items that aren’t already with Clay and brushes imaginary dust off of his shorts. Brian has no delusions that Zerada is a kind woman. He is a passing interest to her, a boy clever and attractive enough to have earned some of her time on this deadly mission. He tells himself she would sacrifice him in an instant to save herself. It’s almost refreshing.  He throws an arm around Zerada and gives her a kiss. There’s no debts or legacies, just two people in the same space with no reason to do anything else. Unlike Clay, he is not a person with a need to plan. Worrying about something bad just hurts you twice, right? 

He finds the other three members of the party gathered around the car on the top level of an underground parking garage. The ceiling lights are dim and warm, but the car itself has Back To The Future style rear doors and cool fluorescent accents. It’s a prototype from her father’s company. It had too many flaws to go to production, but she and her mom tried to fix one themselves. The Audacity, as the Brackens call it, looks like a spaceship. It matches the Vegas Strip, but not the infrastructure underneath it, and it will be all too recognizable out in the desert.  Sierra unplugs the charging cord and tosses Brian the keys. (Luckily, the curse has mostly affected her left arm). The car can more or less drive itself but always obeys the speed limit. 

They take their seats and the doors swing down into place. Brian is the driver, his sleek black sunglasses resting on the dashboard until they get to the surface. Zerada has been offered the passenger seat again, mostly because no one dares to take it from her. Clay and Marin sit by each back window, and Sierra is in the middle. He puts the car into drive. Clay fiddles with a paper map and passes it forward. Their first stop is a state park less than an hour away, just for fun. 

The car radio crackles to life as they leave the garage and reach the surface.

“New stop or new state means new music!” Brian says triumphantly, as he’s the next one in their rotation. The radio is still set to Sierra’s 80s rock.  He prefers modern pop, specifically the more hip-hop side of things. He’s not really musical though. The Vegas Strip is a road lined by hotels on either side. All of that flair has been replaced by square buildings and dust by the time that they pull onto the Las Vegas Freeway. Nothing ahead of them rises higher than three stories above the dry ground. He can see mountains ahead, and the skyscrapers of The Strip are clear in his rearview mirror. 

They drive. He expects that the scruffy bushes and bare stone hills will be very familiar after the next few days. The whole situation is strange with Zerada in the car. She upsets the balance. Before, it had been the three of them and Marin the outsider, but he was nervous and willing to adapt. Zerada is calm and stunning and when she takes his hand while he leaves the car on autopilot he can almost feel Clay and Sierra sharing a look from the back. In an attempt to avoid talk shows, (it's fun to listen for celebrities they've met, but one host mentioned Sierra and ruined her entire day) they hear three Billie Eilish songs in ten minutes. Sierra puts her headphones on and Marin starts to argue that he has CDs in his bag. Brian shoots back that they’re all jazz and blues recordings from 1970 at the latest. Marin corrects him on the genres but not the time period. Two stops or states from now, it will be his turn to choose the music. 

After thirty minutes or so, a crag of rock rises from the tan desert. It is such a vibrant red that it looks almost like someone changed the saturation and hue of a photo. It looms beside them like a breaking wave and Brian doesn’t need his directions to tell him that they have almost reached their first stop. It’s the hottest part of the afternoon as they pull their car beside a standing rock in Valley of Fire State Park. They can’t stay for long. They need to be far away by the time they set up camp, and the heat feels like stepping into an oven. Still, he wants to hike and bike or climb the smooth sandstone. Dry heat isn’t like wet heat. He never realizes just how high the temperature has climbed until he stops for a rest and realizes that his mouth feels like he’s been eating the sand. He drinks from a water bottle and looks up. 

A metal staircase clings to the side of the rock. There are some other tourists nearby, or standing at the top. The metal railings are too hot to hold as the five of them climb the steps to a platform overlooking a slanted rock wall. He’s no geologist, but the rock is covered with a black tarnish, and that tarnish has been scraped away to show symbols. There are humanoid drawings, animals with horns, and geometric shapes. A sign calls them petroglyphs, rock carvings, and explains that they are about two thousand years old. Thirty human lifetimes, or just four elven ones. Marin and Zerada can trace their families back at least twice that far into the past. He stares at the carvings, and then back at the tourists, and down to the shining car. He’d been hoping to double back to the Grand Canyon at some point, but suddenly Brian has no desire to feel small. He rests his head on Zerada’s shoulder on the way back down. This, at least, is important. 

………….

I drove from Vegas to Valley of Fire a couple of years ago. The rocks really do look edited in person. Like this!

Also, to make it clear, Brian is an idiot. He is eighteen and he knows full well that Zerada specializes in charms, mental manipulation, and power. This will not end well. 

[newcountryradio]

New Country 27e jaargang  #T1230(S789) (C33)van 20 mei 2024  (wk 21) uitzending op Smelne fm & Crossroads Country Radio

Album van de week:  The Mavericks -   Moon & Stars  

Classic album: Willie Nelson – Always On My Mind      1982

Hits of the Year : 1992

Maandfavoriet : Randy Travis - Where That Came From

Maandartiest : Rosanne Cash    

3 in 1:    Dwight Yoakam    

Rosanne Cash - Seven Year Ache       *maandartiest

Tim McGraw – Please Remember Me     #1 25 jaar

Luke Combs - Doin’ This    #1 2022

Luke Combs – Ain’t No love In Oklahoma   (twister movie)

Jesse Daniel - Tomorrows Good Ol Days (featuring Ben Haggard).

George Strait – Mia Down in Mia .

Emily Nenni - Drive & Cry.   

Reba McEntire - I Can’t

Jordan Davis – Tucson Too Late  #1.

The Mavericks - The Years Will Not Be Kind  Album vd week

The Mavericks - Moon & Stars (with Sierra Ferrell)  *album

Mel Tillis – I Ain’t Never    Entertainer    1975

Doug Stone – A Jukebox With a Country Song

Faith Hill – The Way, You Love Me

Merle Haggard – Old Man from The Mountain

Randy Travis - Where That Came From favoriet 

Anne Wilson - Songs About whiskey   sofi

Willie Nelson – Last Thing I needed First Thing In The Morning  classic album

Willie Nelson – Always On My Mind   classic album

Carter Faith - Late Bloomer.

Erin Kinsey - I Ain’t Crazy.

Dwight Yoakam – Suspicious Minds      (3 in 1)

Dwight Yoakam – A Thousand Miles from Nowhere

Dwight Yoakam – Ain’t That Lonely Yet

The Mavericks - Overnight Success  album

Post Malone - I Had Some Help (feat. Morgan Wallen)   #1 album.

Kimmi Bitter. I Can't Unlove You

Miranda Lambert – Wranglers.

Lainey Wilson - Hang Tight Honey.

Hayden Baker - Don't Meet Your Heroes (feat. Brad Paisley)

Kane Brown, Marshmello - Miles on It (Truck Song

Rosanne Cash  - If You Change Your Mind   maandartiest

Guy Clark - Old Time Feeling    juweeltje

Scotty McCreery - Fall of Summer

The Mavericks - A Guitar and a Bottle of Wine        Album vd week

Wade Bowen – When I wanna Be wanted  (feat Hillary Lindsay)

Ben & Carmen - Over the years    Dutch corner

Savannah - For Reasons I've Forgotten  .  .Dutch corner.

Danny Vera -  Another Goodbye   Dutch corner

Wynonna – No One Else On Earth #5 1989

Collin Raye – Love, Me  #4

Garth Brooks – What She’s Doing Now #3

Brooks & Dunn – Boot Scootin’ Boogie  #2

Billy Ray Cyrus – Achy Breaky Heart      #1 1992

Lost Dog Street Band - Son of Tennessee.

[thechembow]

A foot of rain in Southern California? Latest... forecast is dangerous

Feb. 2, 2024 - USA Today

"The largest storm of the season" is on the way for California, the National Weather Service said.

Indeed, the weather service isn't mincing words when it comes to the next big... storm that's forecast to slam into California over the weekend and into next week, using words like "life-threatening" and "dangerous" to describe the predicted onslaught of rain, snow and wind...

The weather service said the storm could dump a whopping 15 inches of rain on some parts of the Los Angeles metro area...

The jet stream has been very straight across the west, with the exception of eastern winds during the massive transmutation event preceding this series of storms.

The term "pineapple express" is a synonym for another pseudo-science term, "atmospheric river." Neither explains that high OR has caused the formation of rain clouds, which do not originate in one place and travel across the ocean, as they say. They originate over the land as well (see my last post). Water molecules are in the atmosphere and can be formed into rain clouds anywhere OR is high.

The weather has been extremely wet in Southern California, with more rain than snow so far this season. This is likely due to the heavy gifting of cities to the south in 2023, Albuquerque and Tucson, which received very thorough orgonite grids. This is encouraging more moisture from the south, bringing more rain than snow. We have had a mix of both in SoCal mountains. The Sierras and higher elevations in SoCal will see feet of snow with this system.

[lawitch]

Review of our sold out SF shows last weekend by KQED Arts 🖤

Dates with Jane's Addiction start this weekend!

MAR 05 || Bakersfield, CA - Mechanics Bank Arena, Theater and Convention Center *

MAR 07 || Tucson, AZ - The Rialto Theatre/Tucson, Arizona - SOLD OUT *

MAR 09 || Los Angeles, CA - The Hollywood Palladium - SOLD OUT *

MAR 11 || Reno, NV - Grand Theatre at Grand Sierra Resort and Casino *

MAR 12 || Las Vegas, NV - The Chelsea*

MAR 18 || Edmonton, AB - Cherry Cult Fest

APR 25 || Arcata, CA - Cal Poly Humboldt - FREE

MAY 06 || San Luis Obispo, CA - Shabang

MAY 19 || Berlin, DE - Desertfest Berlin

MAY 27 || Angers, FR - LEVITATION FRANCE

* with Jane’s Addiction

(photo by Estefany Gonzalez)

[plethoraworldatlas]

 A wild jaguar has been photographed by federally run trail cameras in southern Arizona’s Huachuca Mountains at least twice this year. A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service database that tracks jaguar detections lists two photos in March and May 2023.

“These photos show that despite so many obstacles, jaguars continue to reestablish territory in the United States,” said Russ McSpadden, a conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. “This is a wonderful reminder that these big cats move great distances across the landscape. It drives home the importance of protecting connected habitat for these elusive, beautiful felines.”

The photos were taken soon after former Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey’s illegal shipping container border wall was removed from a critical jaguar migration corridor in the Huachuca Mountains.This is the second jaguar to be detected in the Huachuca Mountains since 2016. The first was a young male named Yo’oko, the Yaqui word for jaguar given to the big cat by students of Hiaki High School in Tucson. Yo’oko roamed the mountains in 2016 and 2017 but was photographed dead in Sonora, Mexico, in 2018

[heycabanaboy]

Terri Jean

G60, Grant Ross, Tucson, AZ Terri is a lab tech in Sierra Vista

Please do not remove the artist's name or signature. All rights reserved.

[dietpillsanddietcoke]

She Woke Up One Day

She woke up one day

As if from a dream

And finally saw her life worth living

She woke up and the sun finally shone bright

Woke up to a world filled with color once more

She opened her eyes

And they sparked with gleeful delight

No tears.

No sorrow.

Just joy.

She woke up and felt safe.

Safe and ready 

to take on the world

Safe and excited

For new chapters ahead.

She woke up one day and laughed.

Laughed at the beautiful implausibility of it all.

Laughed at the embarrassment of riches that surrounded her.

She laughed her way

toward becoming whole.

She woke up one day and laughed.

The image of who she once was,

a mere shadow.

The hope for who she will be,

Boundless.

[nexgenlandscaping]

Service Areas

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1. Ahwatukee

2. Apache Junction

3. Buckeye

4. Casa Grande

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10. Glendale

11. Goodyear

12. Kingman

13. Lake Havasu City

14. Litchfield Park

15. Maricopa

16. Mesa

17. Paradise Valley

18. Peoria

19. Phoenix

20. Prescott

21. Queen Creek

22. San Tan Valley

23. Scottsdale

24. Sierra Vista

25. Sun City

26. Sun City West

27. Sun Lakes

28. Surprise

29. Tempe

30. Tucson

31. Yuma

[trendingnews19]

President-elect Donald Trump speaks at the U.S.-Mexico border on August 22, 2024 south of Sierra Vista, Arizona. Rebecca Noble | Getty Images News | Getty ImagesA signature campaign promise of President-elect Donald Trump is to initiate mass deportations of undocumented residents of the United States. At a Sept. 12 campaign stop in Tucson, Arizona, Trump promised to "begin the largest mass deportation mission in the history of our country." Trump's selection of Thomas Homan as "border czar" and Stephen Miller as deputy chief of staff for policy, two officials seen as hard-liners on immigration, suggest that the administration's approach to a crackdown will attempt to make good on that promise and be aggressive, though details have not been provided by the Trump transition team.Trump has said he will start mass deportation efforts with criminals, but he has also vowed to repeal Temporary Protected Status for individuals. He said in a brief post-election interview with NBC News that he has "no choice" but to pursue mass deportation after the election results, and that there is "no price tag." Homan, former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said earlier this year that "No one's off the table. If you're here illegally, you better be looking over your shoulder," and he vowed to "run the biggest deportation force this country has ever seen."Carrying out these pledges, though, is logistically daunting. Artificial intelligence may help.While AI wasn't widely used during the first Trump administration's immigration crackdown, the technology has become more accessible and widely deployed across many systems and government agencies, and President Biden's administration began devoting DHS budget and organizational focus to it.In April, the Department of Homeland Security created the Artificial Intelligence Safety and Security Board to help establish perimeters and protocols for the technology's use. The 2025 DHS budget includes $5 million to open an AI Office in the DHS Office of the Chief Information Officer. According to the DHS budget memo, the office is responsible for advancing and accelerating the "responsible use" of AI by establishing standards, policies, and oversight to support the growing adoption of AI across DHS."AI is a transformative technology that can unprecedentedly advance our national interests. At the same time, it presents real risks we can mitigate by adopting best practices and taking other studied concrete actions," DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said when inaugurating the new board.Now there is concern among experts that DHS's mission will pivot towards deportation and use untested AI to help. Security experts close to DHS worry about how an emboldened and reoriented DHS might wield AI.A Department of Homeland Security spokesman wouldn't speculate on how AI might be used in Trump's administration. The Trump transition and Homan did not respond to requests for comment.Petra Molnar, a lawyer and anthropologist specializing in the impacts of migration technologies on people crossing borders and the author of "The Walls Have Eyes: Surviving Migration in the Age of Artificial Intelligence," has studied the use of technology along the border, which includes drones and robodogs, as faculty associate at Harvard University's Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. She has been critical of AI's use at the border under Democratic Party administrations, but does think that the weaponization of AI will grow under Trump's administration."Knowing the Trump administration has signaled they want to conduct the largest mass deportation in U.S. history and the fact that they have these tools at their disposal, it creates a surveillance dragnet not just at the border but inland that could capture communities all over the U.S.," Molnar said, adding that an entire ecosystem of industry has been created to police borders and immigration."There's been a huge influence of the private sector in the growth of the border-industrial problem," Molnar said, adding that private companies have led the way in introducing robodogs (with benign names like Snoopy and Sniffer), drones, and AI-infused towers."Much of the surveillance technology has been expanded under Democratic administrations, but there has been a signaling of the incoming administration that tech will be a tool to assist them in accomplishing their goals," Molnar said.An AI immigration dragnet vs. AI deregulation and growthRemaya Campbell, acting commissioner for Homeland Security for the District of Columbia, said that AI could automate immigration-related decision-making, bypassing traditional processes."AI could be used to identify individuals for deportation broadly. With little regard for privacy or due process," Campbell said, adding that AI decision-making systems operate with the values their users impart. "And in the Trump administration, that could certainly mean reinforcing intersectional biases to align with political priorities," she said. "At a minimum, we could expect AI to be leveraged not as a tool for efficiency, fairness, and safety in immigration-related decision-making, but as an instrument of systemic bias and authoritarian rule," Campbell added.Neil Sahota, an AI advisor to the United Nations AI for Good Initiative, said he shares those concerns given that AI already has a muscular presence in managing the vast, challenging-to-monitor U.S. borders, and it that usage will expand under Trump.DHS's Customs and Border Protection already has employed AI-powered drones with machine-learning capabilities to identify unusual patterns that could signal illegal crossings, drones that can distinguish between people, animals, and vehicles, and help to minimize false alarms, Sahota said. Sensor towers equipped with AI provide 24/7 monitoring, allowing faster response times and freeing up human resources."Expectations are that a Trump administration would push for even more AI surveillance, potentially introducing autonomous patrols and expanding biometric screening," Sahota said.While this could improve border security, it could also spark concerns around privacy, particularly for those living near borders. And Sahota added that the Trump administration's use of AI could expand beyond security and aid in deportation. "AI surveillance systems would be a cornerstone of Trump's deportation strategy," Sahotra said. "Enhanced AI could fast-track deportations," Sahota added, which would come with the potential for rights violations and racial profiling.These systems use facial recognition and behavior analysis capabilities to identify people suspected of being in the country illegally, but he cautioned that these systems don't always get it right. "How do we handle situations where AI makes errors in identifying people's immigration status? What if the system mistakenly flags a legal resident or citizen for deportation? The consequences are devastating for families and our community," Sahota said.Laura MacCleery, senior policy director of Unidos U.S., the nation's largest Hispanic advocacy group, said AI accuracy problems are well known, with systems making inaccurate conclusions, and data on people of color tending to be less accurate.DMV records, utility bills, and facial recognition technology at the border and the airports will all be tools that could be enhanced with AI to pursue deportation."These technologies could be changed and altered and have different guardrails in a different administration. The concern about mass deportations is the enhanced use of AI by immigration enforcement and to superpower the ability to monitor public data, MacCleery said.It is inevitable, she said, that AI will sweep up U.S. citizens."Because there are U.S. citizens that live with people of different immigration status and those people will get swept up and the due process rights of people who are here legally could be violated and that is super problematic and an inevitable consequence of the overuse of these kinds of technologies," MacCleery said.But Marina Shepelsky, CEO, co-founder, and immigration attorney at New York-based Shepelsky Law Group, said she is not thinking about AI policy in the Trump administration as a dystopian technology to fear. "He is a businessman, he will see value in allowing AI to progress and grow to make the lives of lawyers like myself, doctors, scientists, etc., easier," Shepelsky said. She thinks AI will blossom and be deregulated in a Trump administration. "Hopefully, with Elon Musk at his side, President Trump would push for more foreign tech AI experts to come to the U.S. quicker and with less red tape to improve AI and reduce its current awkwardness," Shepelsky said. "I am not an alarmist and not tearing out my hair about Trump being our next president. I may not like all his policies, but with AI – I do think he will push for its growth, and for laws and regulations to be more flexible to allow AI to grow."

[globalnews1]

President-elect Donald Trump speaks at the U.S.-Mexico border on August 22, 2024 south of Sierra Vista, Arizona. Rebecca Noble | Getty Images News | Getty ImagesA signature campaign promise of President-elect Donald Trump is to initiate mass deportations of undocumented residents of the United States. At a Sept. 12 campaign stop in Tucson, Arizona, Trump promised to "begin the largest mass deportation mission in the history of our country." Trump's selection of Thomas Homan as "border czar" and Stephen Miller as deputy chief of staff for policy, two officials seen as hard-liners on immigration, suggest that the administration's approach to a crackdown will attempt to make good on that promise and be aggressive, though details have not been provided by the Trump transition team.Trump has said he will start mass deportation efforts with criminals, but he has also vowed to repeal Temporary Protected Status for individuals. He said in a brief post-election interview with NBC News that he has "no choice" but to pursue mass deportation after the election results, and that there is "no price tag." Homan, former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said earlier this year that "No one's off the table. If you're here illegally, you better be looking over your shoulder," and he vowed to "run the biggest deportation force this country has ever seen."Carrying out these pledges, though, is logistically daunting. Artificial intelligence may help.While AI wasn't widely used during the first Trump administration's immigration crackdown, the technology has become more accessible and widely deployed across many systems and government agencies, and President Biden's administration began devoting DHS budget and organizational focus to it.In April, the Department of Homeland Security created the Artificial Intelligence Safety and Security Board to help establish perimeters and protocols for the technology's use. The 2025 DHS budget includes $5 million to open an AI Office in the DHS Office of the Chief Information Officer. According to the DHS budget memo, the office is responsible for advancing and accelerating the "responsible use" of AI by establishing standards, policies, and oversight to support the growing adoption of AI across DHS."AI is a transformative technology that can unprecedentedly advance our national interests. At the same time, it presents real risks we can mitigate by adopting best practices and taking other studied concrete actions," DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said when inaugurating the new board.Now there is concern among experts that DHS's mission will pivot towards deportation and use untested AI to help. Security experts close to DHS worry about how an emboldened and reoriented DHS might wield AI.A Department of Homeland Security spokesman wouldn't speculate on how AI might be used in Trump's administration. The Trump transition and Homan did not respond to requests for comment.Petra Molnar, a lawyer and anthropologist specializing in the impacts of migration technologies on people crossing borders and the author of "The Walls Have Eyes: Surviving Migration in the Age of Artificial Intelligence," has studied the use of technology along the border, which includes drones and robodogs, as faculty associate at Harvard University's Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. She has been critical of AI's use at the border under Democratic Party administrations, but does think that the weaponization of AI will grow under Trump's administration."Knowing the Trump administration has signaled they want to conduct the largest mass deportation in U.S. history and the fact that they have these tools at their disposal, it creates a surveillance dragnet not just at the border but inland that could capture communities all over the U.S.," Molnar said, adding that an entire ecosystem of industry has been created to police borders and immigration."There's been a huge influence of the private sector in the growth of the border-industrial problem," Molnar said, adding that private companies have led the way in introducing robodogs (with benign names like Snoopy and Sniffer), drones, and AI-infused towers."Much of the surveillance technology has been expanded under Democratic administrations, but there has been a signaling of the incoming administration that tech will be a tool to assist them in accomplishing their goals," Molnar said.An AI immigration dragnet vs. AI deregulation and growthRemaya Campbell, acting commissioner for Homeland Security for the District of Columbia, said that AI could automate immigration-related decision-making, bypassing traditional processes."AI could be used to identify individuals for deportation broadly. With little regard for privacy or due process," Campbell said, adding that AI decision-making systems operate with the values their users impart. "And in the Trump administration, that could certainly mean reinforcing intersectional biases to align with political priorities," she said. "At a minimum, we could expect AI to be leveraged not as a tool for efficiency, fairness, and safety in immigration-related decision-making, but as an instrument of systemic bias and authoritarian rule," Campbell added.Neil Sahota, an AI advisor to the United Nations AI for Good Initiative, said he shares those concerns given that AI already has a muscular presence in managing the vast, challenging-to-monitor U.S. borders, and it that usage will expand under Trump.DHS's Customs and Border Protection already has employed AI-powered drones with machine-learning capabilities to identify unusual patterns that could signal illegal crossings, drones that can distinguish between people, animals, and vehicles, and help to minimize false alarms, Sahota said. Sensor towers equipped with AI provide 24/7 monitoring, allowing faster response times and freeing up human resources."Expectations are that a Trump administration would push for even more AI surveillance, potentially introducing autonomous patrols and expanding biometric screening," Sahota said.While this could improve border security, it could also spark concerns around privacy, particularly for those living near borders. And Sahota added that the Trump administration's use of AI could expand beyond security and aid in deportation. "AI surveillance systems would be a cornerstone of Trump's deportation strategy," Sahotra said. "Enhanced AI could fast-track deportations," Sahota added, which would come with the potential for rights violations and racial profiling.These systems use facial recognition and behavior analysis capabilities to identify people suspected of being in the country illegally, but he cautioned that these systems don't always get it right. "How do we handle situations where AI makes errors in identifying people's immigration status? What if the system mistakenly flags a legal resident or citizen for deportation? The consequences are devastating for families and our community," Sahota said.Laura MacCleery, senior policy director of Unidos U.S., the nation's largest Hispanic advocacy group, said AI accuracy problems are well known, with systems making inaccurate conclusions, and data on people of color tending to be less accurate.DMV records, utility bills, and facial recognition technology at the border and the airports will all be tools that could be enhanced with AI to pursue deportation."These technologies could be changed and altered and have different guardrails in a different administration. The concern about mass deportations is the enhanced use of AI by immigration enforcement and to superpower the ability to monitor public data, MacCleery said.It is inevitable, she said, that AI will sweep up U.S. citizens."Because there are U.S. citizens that live with people of different immigration status and those people will get swept up and the due process rights of people who are here legally could be violated and that is super problematic and an inevitable consequence of the overuse of these kinds of technologies," MacCleery said.But Marina Shepelsky, CEO, co-founder, and immigration attorney at New York-based Shepelsky Law Group, said she is not thinking about AI policy in the Trump administration as a dystopian technology to fear. "He is a businessman, he will see value in allowing AI to progress and grow to make the lives of lawyers like myself, doctors, scientists, etc., easier," Shepelsky said. She thinks AI will blossom and be deregulated in a Trump administration. "Hopefully, with Elon Musk at his side, President Trump would push for more foreign tech AI experts to come to the U.S. quicker and with less red tape to improve AI and reduce its current awkwardness," Shepelsky said. "I am not an alarmist and not tearing out my hair about Trump being our next president. I may not like all his policies, but with AI – I do think he will push for its growth, and for laws and regulations to be more flexible to allow AI to grow."

[remilaku]

Dreadlocks in Tucson and Sierra Vista Arizona 520-808-2465 or 520-389-4499