What AI, ICE and the Fed have in common

Independent journalist Ken Klippenstein reported Monday that Border Patrol circulated guidance reminding agents of protected activities under the First Amendment. Per the “legal refresher,” the First Amendment protects profanity, personal insults, rude gestures, and arguing with, challenging or talking back to officers.

The “legal refresher” also included a list of things that do not violate another law against assaulting, resisting or impeding officers. That list of protected activities included noncompliance and peaceful protest.

Notably, though, the law doesn’t protect what’s loosely described as incitement, “fighting words,” or threats of violence. Immigration agents have infamously lied about facing threats of violence, and they’ve also violently tried to stop people from doing the protected activities listed above. And plenty have argued that trainings like this “legal refresher” aren’t sufficient ways to stop federal agents from committing more violence. Other reporting backs this up.

Even if something is protected by law, it’s still helpful to be aware of potential consequences. Like, one Ford employee who flipped off Trump was suspended from his job. His union is reviewing the suspension.

404 Media reported last month that ICE has paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to a company called AI Solutions 87. The company makes “AI agents” to track people down, and records show that ICE sought out the company specifically to help them arrest and deport people.

This is part of ICE’s broader multi-million dollar effort to pay bounty hunters and private investigators to stalk migrants and give their addresses to ICE.

So, how do these AI agents work? AI Solutions 87’s website reportedly says they can speed up the process of finding “persons of interest and mapping out their entire network.” (Translation: stalking immigrants, their families and their friends to help ICE round them up.) But it doesn’t detail how exactly AI agents do that.

More broadly, 10 companies have made $1 million off of ICE’s bounty hunter program already. They stand to make over $1 billion by 2027. These contractors are profiting off of kidnapping migrants following a massive government handout to the deportation machine and the companies that fuel it.

President Donald Trump’s Justice Department is criminally investigating Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. The investigation is ostensibly about renovations to the central bank’s headquarters, although Trump has a longstanding feud with Powell and a history of trying to launch criminal investigations into his political enemies.

Why are they fighting? Trump wants Powell to lower interest rates even more than the Fed already did. The Fed is worried that could worsen inflation by increasing spending too much. But some experts say it could also lower unemployment by making it cheaper to buy things, increasing demand, and increasing the need to hire people to make the things people are buying.

So, those are the two ends of the interest rate cut seesaw: risking it causing worse inflation, and hoping it causes more hiring. But because recent hiring and employment data came close to what the Fed was expecting, it appears reluctant to tip the seesaw too much in either direction. So, it’s unlikely to cut interest rates again soon.

Bored by this monetary policy explainer? Let’s get back to political gossip. Trump seems to think it’s his job to pressure the Fed into doing what he wants. But historically, the Fed has strived to act independently from political influence. (It hasn’t always lived up to this goal, though.) Research shows that when central banks bow to political pressure, it’s bad for the economy.

Mercor, a $10 billion AI startup, hired over 30,000 contractors last year, is paying many of them well over $100 per hour and offering similarly hefty referral bonuses.

But the contractors have to train AI how to do their jobs. “I joked with my friends I’m training AI to take my job someday,” one of the contractors told The Wall Street Journal. Other employees also say they don’t feel great about it, but other job options are limited. 2025 was a rough year for hiring.

Who’s behind all this? Mercor’s founders got a lot of money from Peter Thiel, JD Vance’s billionaire bestie and Republican megadonor who gave a bunch of lectures about the antichrist in which he railed against AI regulations.