Author archives

Mohamed Al Elew is a journalism engineer at The Markup, where they use data and software to produce investigative reporting. Before The Markup, Mohamed was a data reporter at Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting, where they investigated disparities in pandemic aid lending, oil drilling near schools and daycares, and violence at abortions clinics. They were a Livingston Awards co-finalist for the Banking on Inequity series. They studied computer science at the University of California, San Diego, where they were a research scholar at the Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute and served as editor-in-chief of The Triton, the school’s independent student newsroom.

Trump Is Creating a Deportation Army of Local Cops

Mohamed Al Elew and Wendy Fry’s reporting analyzes federal data that my be a surprise to Floridians about ICE’s 287(g) program. All Florida residents now live in a county where local police will be trained to work on behalf of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to federal data analyzed by The Markup. The training is part of a rapidly expanding federal program to deputize state and local authorities as immigration enforcers, with the number of participating agencies doubling since January, according to the data. There are now over 10 million Americans living in a county with an immigration delegation agreement, The Markup’s review shows.

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Legal Research, Privacy

Your Smart TV Knows What You’re Watching

Mohamed Al Elew and Gabriel Hongsdusit describe how to turn off “automated content recognition,” the Shazam-like software on smart TVs that tracks what you’re watching.

Subjects: Big Data, E-Commerce, Privacy