The FBI is monitoring activist groups who are protesting U.S. immigration policy at the southern border, Yahoo News reports. That sounds extreme, considering most of the evidence cited in a report by the Phoenix FBI office reportedly described nonviolent protest activity.
Activists and civil rights advocates are reportedly worried by the news. They think the government is trying to stifle legitimate civil disobedience and government opposition by labeling it violent extremism or domestic terrorism. But Mike German, a former FBI special agent and fellow at New York University who has written about surveillance of activists, said that while the report appears to be evidence of the bureau's overreach, the FBI has long zeroed in on nonviolent activists.
"It's been a feature of the post-9/11 counterterrorism effort by the FBI to focus on nonviolent civil disobedience and to prioritize it," German said. "For several years after 9/11, the FBI called environmental activists the no. 1 domestic terror threat, even though there's not a single homicide related to environmental 'terrorists' in the United States." German cited a 2010 report from the FBI's inspector general which criticized the bureau for classifying nonviolent claims related to protests by groups like PETA and Greenpeace as "terrorism."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The FBI, for its part, said the report out of the Phoenix office was "intended to be informative in nature" and contains "appropriate caveats to describe the confidence in the sourcing of information and the likelihood of the assessment." Read more at Yahoo News.
-
August 24 editorial cartoonsCartoons Sunday's political cartoons include Putin at Donald Trump's circus, gallons of whitewash, and a foldable cartoon
-
5 Post Office-approved cartoons about mail-in votingCartoons Artists take on reverse logic, Putin's election advice, and more
-
The battle of the weight-loss drugsTalking Point Can Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly regain their former stock market glory? A lot is riding on next year's pills
-
Nobody seems surprised Wagner's Prigozhin died under suspicious circumstancesSpeed Read
-
Western mountain climbers allegedly left Pakistani porter to die on K2Speed Read
-
'Circular saw blades' divide controversial Rio Grande buoys installed by Texas governorSpeed Read
-
Los Angeles city workers stage 1-day walkout over labor conditionsSpeed Read
-
Mega Millions jackpot climbs to an estimated $1.55 billionSpeed Read
-
Bangladesh dealing with worst dengue fever outbreak on recordSpeed Read
-
Glacial outburst flooding in Juneau destroys homesSpeed Read
-
Scotland seeking 'monster hunters' to search for fabled Loch Ness creatureSpeed Read
