Our July newsletter
It’s been a minute – sorry! But ICE is front and center for over a month for most of Los Angeles (from where I’m writing) and we're all figuring out ways to respond. Here are 25 Places To Volunteer Your Skills For Immigrants and Angelenos In Need Right Now from L.A. TACO, who writes "Our commitment to one another and compassion may be the biggest weapon we've got against the fear L.A. is being targeted with."
But first…
🍋🟩 Los Angeles Mixer 🍋🟩
If you’re in SoCal next Thursday, head on over to the oh-so-hospitable Everson Royce Bar in the Arts District and join us for a summer evening get-together.
Thursday July 24 6:30-8:30 pm
Everson Royce Bar – 1936 E 7th Street, Los Angeles CA 90021
Our spring workshop was a great success!
With 16 participants, it was a nice size so that folks could both dig into their projects in a personalized way and share knowledge within the curated breakout groups. From students to PhDs, across fields of social justice, healthcare, policy, mental health and more, this cohort represented a breadth of interest and practice in using data through an equity lens. Thank you to the facilitator team and to all the participants who bring “data equity” alive in your work.
If you would like to bring a workshop to your workplace or organization, or to a circle of like-minded friends or individuals, please email us to discuss.
Turning the tables on ICE with data
We’re all aware of some of the most oppressive ways that ICE uses data, AI and facial recognition software against our communities, recently among them: their April $30M contract with Palantir to help deport people through "near real-time visibility;" access to 1.8 billion medical claims in the ISO ClaimSearch database; and the Mobile Fortify App that captures facial images and fingerprint data on a phone’s camera.
Perhaps less well known are ways that folks are using data, mapping and even facial recognition in reverse. Here are a few worth sharing:
1. Masked, Armed and Forceful: Finding Patterns in Los Angeles Immigration Raids
Bellingcat, Evident Media and CalMatters partnered to gather and document social media and online footage of as many of the LA raids as possible. They collected videos of over 100 incidents starting on June 6, picking out sightings and what appear to be recurring trends and tactics used by officers. While the videos only capture a portion of the incidents that have taken place, the report notes trends across the city: raids at work places, strip malls and Home Depot parking lots, masked and plain clothes abductors in unmarked cars, and the use of militarized force and intimidation. Find the report along with downloadable data here.
2. U.S.-Mexico Border Surveillance Data
The EFF has created a map and dataset documenting surveillance towers and other technologies used by U.S. Customs and Border Protection along the border, and this data helps visualize the "virtual wall". The map and dataset has grown to 568 towers as of June 18, 2025.
3. Use Facial Recognition to Instantly Identify Cops
Cops covering up their badges? ID them with their faces instead. Search over 9,000 LAPD headshots. Processing happens on your device. No photos or data are transmitted or saved. Head on over here.
Books: 2 new AI must-reads
The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want, by Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna
”Bender and Hanna show you how to spot AI hype, how to deconstruct it, and how to expose the power grabs it aims to hide.”
Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI, by Karen Hao
”An astonishing eyewitness view from both up in the command capsule of the new economy and down where the real suffering happens, Empire of AI pierces the veil of the industry defining our era.”
Book talk: Challenging AI Hype and Tech Industry Power
You can get a peek at the books in a June conversation hosted by Data & Society, where the three authors explored AI’s impact on our environment and society, and the motivations of the tech elite that build and shape it.
Newsletter: AI in Common
Ashley Khor, AI ethics researcher, practitioner and a participant in our recent workshop, runs a public newsletter called AI in Common on responsible AI and data governance that we’d like to share with you. It’s a space where she reflects on what it means to build more emotionally intelligent and justice-centered relationships with technology. I’m especially interested in how we can use tools like language models thoughtfully — not just for efficiency, but to support deeper thinking, storytelling, and care in public-interest work. Give it a read!
Tool: Racial Disparities Dashboard
The Othering & Belonging Institute has released a revised Racial Disparities Dashboard. This project is designed to be an open resource repository on racial disparities in American society that are important, vital, and measurable, with nearly 80 different indicators with measured disparities between Black and white Americans. Find this useful dashboard here.
All for now!
Karen Borchgrevink
Founder and Executive Director, on behalf of Data Reframed