4 ms·

But how can the Federal government access that data re: parking tickets etc.? Given that (if I understand the USA right) such things would be held at a municipa

But how can the Federal government access that data re: parking tickets etc.? Given that (if I understand the USA right) such things would be held at a municipal or state level at best? Does this foreshadow a massive Federal government data hoovering? Which, sigh, I'm sure DOGE will feed into an LLM.

Terr_ 2y ago
> such things would be held at a municipal or state level at best? Correct, the immigration laws (and databases) involved are all federal. However there are are shared legal conventions, such as the spectrum of trivial-to-major and how things are named. (Kind of like how logging levels are often INFO, WARN, ERROR, etc. across many pieces of software.) Here I'm discussing the trivial end of the (shared) spectrum, but I'm using a non-federal example because it's something more people will recognize and relate-to. The majority of laws an individual American encounters are state-level. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classes_of_offenses_under_United_States_federal_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classes_of_offenses_under_Unit... > Does this foreshadow a massive Federal government data hoovering? The federal government can't compel states to "do their work for them", so getting special access to non-public state databases will probably depend on whether the state leadership decides to help make it happen. Two contrasting examples: * https://www.courthousenews.com/washington-sues-county-for-helping-federal-immigration-agents/ https://www.courthousenews.com/washington-sues-county-for-he... * https://minnesotareformer.com/2025/03/10/despite-profiling-concerns-more-law-agencies-are-joining-street-level-immigration-enforcement-2/ https://minnesotareformer.com/2025/03/10/despite-profiling-c...
- EdwardDiego 2y ago
  So, if you're in a Republican state, you're far more likely to get caught up in this due to a compliant state government, I guess? Or the Federal govt can strongarm your state into compliance by withholding Federal money? I imagine California is in a position to tell them to jog on, but sheesh.

Terr_ 2y ago

> such things would be held at a municipal or state level at best? Correct, the immigration laws (and databases) involved are all federal. However there are are shared legal conventions, such as the spectrum of trivial-to-major and how things are named. (Kind of like how logging levels are often INFO, WARN, ERROR, etc. across many pieces of software.) Here I'm discussing the trivial end of the (shared) spectrum, but I'm using a non-federal example because it's something more people will recognize and relate-to. The majority of laws an individual American encounters are state-level. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classes_of_offenses_under_United_States_federal_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classes_of_offenses_under_Unit... > Does this foreshadow a massive Federal government data hoovering? The federal government can't compel states to "do their work for them", so getting special access to non-public state databases will probably depend on whether the state leadership decides to help make it happen. Two contrasting examples: * https://www.courthousenews.com/washington-sues-county-for-helping-federal-immigration-agents/ https://www.courthousenews.com/washington-sues-county-for-he... * https://minnesotareformer.com/2025/03/10/despite-profiling-concerns-more-law-agencies-are-joining-street-level-immigration-enforcement-2/ https://minnesotareformer.com/2025/03/10/despite-profiling-c...

EdwardDiego 2y ago
So, if you're in a Republican state, you're far more likely to get caught up in this due to a compliant state government, I guess? Or the Federal govt can strongarm your state into compliance by withholding Federal money? I imagine California is in a position to tell them to jog on, but sheesh.