No Kings protesters targeted with surveillance | Political News

Law enforcement officers might use surveillance technology, including facial recognition, to monitor protestors attending No Kings protests nationwide. 

More than 2,700 protests are sweeping across the nation to protest against President Donald Trump’s administration, including the crackdown on free speech and immigration enforcement, amid the federal government shutdown.

However, civil libertarians, including Thorin Klosowski, a security activist with Electronic Frontier Foundation, told GWN that surveillance technology will doubtless be current at the protests. 

However, the extent of surveillance will fluctuate as per location. Washington, D.C., has anti-scale fencing around the White House and could have more surveillance than any rural city.

“Today, October 18, 2025, there are more people out on the streets in more communities all over our country than we have ever seen in American history,” Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders said as he attended a protest.

While there are more people in Times Square, New York than on New Year’s Eve.

“Under previous administrations, law enforcement surveillance of peaceful demonstrations was already commonplace and corrosive of free expression,” Ryan Shapiro, government director of authorities transparency group Property of the People, told GWN.

“Given Trump’s open hostility to even minor dissent, such surveillance now poses an existential threat to what remains of American democracy and only underscores the need for mass protest,” Shapiro added.

Several news shops reported that the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement has a number of digital surveillance instruments, including telephone hacking instruments, facial recognition, and cell website simulators, which is able to carefully monitor protesters’ cell phones.

They may also use the MQ-9 Predator drones that have been used over Los Angeles earlier this 12 months during anti-ICE protests, as effectively as high-definition cameras seen at Chicago protests.

DHS didn’t formally reply to No Kings’ protest against surveillance.

“As it does every day, DHS law enforcement will enforce the laws of our nation,” the DHS told GWN.

An ICE spokesperson told GWN that “the First Amendment protects speech and peaceful assembly — not rioting. DHS is taking reasonable and constitutional measures to uphold the rule of law and protect our officers.”

Trump allies have, however, denounced these protests.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, a close Trump ally, has called the No Kings protests a “hate America rally” while Sen. Roger Marshall has accused billionaire George Soros of paying for the protest.

“I encourage you to watch — we call it the hostility America rally — that will happen Saturday,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.

“Let’s see who shows up for that,” Johnson said, itemizing teams including “antifa types,” people who “hate capitalism” and “Marxists in full display.”