Portland City Councilor Angelita Morillo has come to national attention for advising anti-ICE protesters to use alternative techniques in both the use of digital technology and personal conduct to elude any tracking and detection from law enforcement.
In a Facebook video, which contains considerable detail and knowledge of federal law enforcement technology, Morillo gave “legal analysis,” including several points in which protesters should be wary when communicating digitally. She additionally provided technological alternatives that can be less conspicuous than conventional ones.
According to Morillo, “there are more ICE agents on the ground now and that federal surveillance is at an all time high.” Cautioning protesters, she also noted that there has never been a bigger presence of federal officers in the city until now.
“There are facial recognition technology devices that are used at most federal buildings, and most people think that they can beat that by covering their faces, but if you just cover the lower half, guess what? You have left your eyes and eyebrows, which are the most identifiable parts of you,” Morillo said.
Some technology can pick up on someone’s unique gait and manner of walking, she further noted.
“Your phone: you should consider this a tracker and a listening device at all times,” Morillo said. “With your phone, they can track your location. They can see who you met with. If you happen to organize with a bunch of different people and you all took the bus to the same secure location, guess what? They have a pattern of who you organize with, who you talk to, and how long and why.”
Continuing with cell phone advice, Morillo explained further options for protesters to prevent their phones from being susceptible to authorities.
“So you should get a Faraday cage, which blocks the signal from your phone. You should disable fingerprint and facial recognition technology to unlock your phone. And you should have a pin that is longer than four numbers. If you’re going to regularly protest, I also highly recommend going to your local grocery store and buying a burner phone in cash, and using encrypted apps like Signal to communicate with people, and having disappearing messages on.”
Morillo said she is confident that lawsuits against the federal government will succeed in preventing the National Guard from going into Portland, an intention set forth by President Trump.
The TPUSA Frontlines team recently visited Portland to cover these ongoing Antifa protests against ICE. Upon questioning from reporter Savanah Hernandez, protesters, some of whom had little or no face covering, expressed animosity toward the right wing and the late TPUSA Founder Charlie Kirk.
