By GARANCE BURKE and BYRON TAU

More than two dozen privacy and advocacy organizations are calling on California Gov. Gavin Newsom to remove a network of covert license plate readers deployed across Southern California that the groups believe feed data into a controversial U.S. Border Patrol predictive domestic intelligence program that scans the country’s roadways for suspicious travel patterns.

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“We ask that your administration investigate and release the relevant permits, revoke them, and initiate the removal of these devices,” read the letter sent Tuesday by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Imperial Valley Equity and Justice and other nonprofits.

An Associated Press investigation published in November revealed that the U.S. Border Patrol, an agency under U.S. Customs and Border Protection, had hidden license plate readers in ordinary traffic safety equipment. The data collected by the Border Patrol plate readers was then fed into a predictive intelligence program monitoring millions of American drivers nationwide to identify and detain people whose travel patterns it deems suspicious.

AP obtained land use permits from Arizona showing that the Border Patrol went to great lengths to conceal its surveillance equipment in that state, camouflaging it by placing it inside orange and yellow construction barrels dotting highways.

The letter said the groups’ researchers have identified a similar network of devices in California, finding about 40 license plate readers in San Diego and Imperial counties, both of which border Mexico. More than two dozen of the plate readers identified by the groups were hidden in construction barrels.

They could not determine of the ownership of every device, but the groups said in the letter that they obtained some permits from the California Department of Transportation, showing both the Border Patrol and Drug Enforcement Administration had applied for permission to place readers along state highways. DEA shares its license plate reader data with Border Patrol, documents show.

The letter cited the AP’s reporting, which found that Border Patrol uses a network of cameras to scan and record vehicle license plate information. An algorithm flags vehicles deemed suspicious based on where they came from, where they were going and which route they took. Agents appeared to be looking for vehicles making short trips to the border region, claiming that such travel is indicative of potential drug or human smuggling.

Federal agents in turn sometimes refer drivers they deem suspicious to local law enforcement who make a traffic stop citing a reason like speeding or lane change violations. Drivers often have no idea they have been caught up in a predictive intelligence program being run by a federal agency.

The AP identified at least two cases in which California residents appeared to have been caught up in the Border Patrol’s surveillance of domestic travel patterns. In one 2024 incident described in court documents, a Border Patrol agent pulled over the driver of a Nissan Altima based in part on vehicle travel data showing that it took the driver six hours to travel the approximately 50 miles between the U.S.-Mexican border and Oceanside, California, where the agent had been on patrol.

“This type of delay in travel after crossing the International Border from Mexico is a common tactic used by persons involved in illicit smuggling,” the agent wrote in a court document.

In another case, Border Patrol agents said in a court document in 2023 they detained a woman at an internal checkpoint because she had traveled a circuitous route between Los Angeles and Phoenix. In both cases, law enforcement accused the drivers of smuggling immigrants in the country unlawfully and were seeking to seize their property or charge them with a crime.

The intelligence program, which has existed under administrations of both parties, has drawn scrutiny from lawmakers since the AP revealed its existence last year.

The California Department of Transportation and the office of Newsom, a Democrat, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Courts have generally upheld license plate reader collection on public roads but have curtailed warrantless government access to other kinds of persistent tracking data that might reveal sensitive details about people’s movements, such as GPS devices or cellphone location data. Some scholars and civil libertarians argues that large-scale collection systems like plate readers might be unconstitutional under the Fourth Amendment.

“Increasingly, courts have recognized that the use of surveillance technologies can violate the Fourth Amendment’s protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. Although this area of law is still developing, the use of LPRs and predictive algorithms to track and flag individuals’ movements represents the type of sweeping surveillance that should raise constitutional concerns,” the organizations wrote.

CBP did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but previously said the agency uses plate readers to help identify threats and disrupt criminal networks and their use of the technology is “governed by a stringent, multi-layered policy framework, as well as federal law and constitutional protections, to ensure the technology is applied responsibly and for clearly defined security purposes.”

DEA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Burke reported from San Francisco. Tau reported from Washington.

Contact AP’s global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org or https://www.ap.org/tips/.

Last week’s fatal shooting of a St. Paul man in the city’s West Seventh neighborhood was a planned robbery, according to charges.

Antavarius Scott Baker, 38, of Minneapolis, was charged Monday by warrant in Ramsey County District Court with two counts of second-degree murder in connection with the Feb. 2 killing of David Lee Turner III, 23. Baker is in custody in Hennepin County on charges in an unrelated case.

The alleged shooter, Eithan Armani Green, 29, of Minneapolis, was charged Friday with second-degree murder and possession of a firearm by an ineligible person.

According to the criminal complaints, police found Turner shot in the driver’s seat of a Dodge Durango in the 100 block of Oneida Street just after 10 p.m. He was pronounced dead at the scene, and an autopsy showed eight gunshot wounds.

Officers processed the Durango and recovered eight spent 9mm casings, three spent .40-caliber casings and nearly three pounds of marijuana.

In an initial interview with St. Paul police, Baker said he and Green had previously bought marijuana from Turner, and that both he and Green had used his phone to text Turner about buying marijuana from him.

Baker said Green got into Turner’s Durango. He then heard two different guns fire. Green ran back to their car and said, “I shot him,” the man told police, according to the complaint.

Green was also shot, and Baker dropped him off at Regions Hospital with gunshot wounds to his abdomen and leg

Later, in a second interview, Baker was confronted about text messages between him and Green that alluded to previous robberies. When asked if he knew Green was going to rob Turner, Baker admitted, “Yes, I knew it, but I didn’t know he was going to kill him though.”

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MILAN — Hannah Bilka scored twice, and the United States’ youth and speed overwhelmed a Canadian women’s hockey team missing its captain in a 5-0 win at the Milan Cortina Games on Tuesday.

The lopsided victory clinched first place for the U.S. in Group A entering the quarterfinals, and continued confirming why the Americans entered the tournament as favorites. Team USA swept all four preliminary-round games by a combined score of 20-1, and brought back memories of how a Canadian team in its prime rolled to winning gold at the 2022 Beijing Games.

The tables have since turned, and it was evident on the scoresheet from a roster that features seven players still in college.

The University of Wisconsin’s Caroline Harvey had a goal and two assists, with Badger teammates Laila Edwards and Kristen Simms also scoring. The goal was Edwards’ first in her Olympic debut in being the first Black woman to represent the U.S.

University of Minnesota captain Abbey Murphy set up three goals.

Aerin Frankel stopped 20 shots for her third win and second shutout in her first Olympic tournament. And even 36-year-old captain Hilary Knight added an assist — the 32nd Olympic point of her career to tie Jenny Potter for most by a U.S. women’s hockey player.

Canada, meantime, opened tentatively, and then ran into penalty problems minus its longtime leader, Marie-Philip Poulin.

Poulin was ruled out about five hours before puck drop, and a day after she limped off with an apparent lower-body injury in the first period of a 5-1 win over Czechia. The 34-year-old Poulin is considered day to day, though it’s unclear when the player nicknamed “Captain Clutch” will be available for Canada’s closing game of the preliminary round against Finland on Thursday.

And Poulin’s availability is uncertain for Saturday, when Canada is scheduled to play its quarterfinal game.

The U.S. will open the quarterfinals against host nation Italy, which went 2-2 in clinching the third and final Group B playoff spot. The Americans are two-time Olympic gold medalists.

Whatever “O, Canada” buzz there was amid a large Maple Leaf flag-waving capacity crowd quickly dampened on a drizzly day outside the 11,600-seat Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena. And the soundtrack instead became the sound of the U.S. goal song, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Free Bird.”

Harvey opened the scoring 3:45 in by driving in from the left point and snapping a shot beating Ann-Renee Desbiens.

The Americans’ speed and quick-strike ability was evident on their next goal when Murphy chased down Harvey’s pass in the right corner. Murphy immediately spun and sent a no-look pass Bilka converted by driving to the net.

Simms made it 3-0 by jamming the puck over the line 72 seconds into the second period and Murphy set up Bilka for another one-timer some six minutes later.

Desbiens allowed five goals on 27 shots and was pulled after Edwards scored with 8:07 left. She was replaced by Emerance Maschmeyer, who finished with five saves.

Canada’s worst fears were realized in opening the game minus Poulin, after concerns were already raised after the U.S. dominated in sweeping a four-game exhibition pre-Olympic Rivalry Series. The Americans outscored Canada by a combined margin of 24-7.

The U.S. has now defeated Canada in seven straight meetings, dating to the preliminary round and gold-medal game of the world championships in April.

Though the Canadians kept the U.S. mostly to the perimeter, they were unable to generate any hint of a sustained offense. Canada was out-shot 11-4 through the first period — and one shot credited to Canada included a dribbler on net from the neutral zone.

Rounding out the day is Finland playing Switzerland in a Group A outing.

Line judge Sarah Buckner stands as players run during a preliminary round match of women’s ice hockey between the United States and Canada at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

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“PATH was built to manage crisis, not prevent it. Its role is to decide who qualifies for shelter, not who needs housing. As a result, families are forced to fall far enough to be deemed eligible.”

Department of Homeless Services’ Prevention Assistance and Temporary Housing (PATH) intake center in the Bronx, located at the intersection of East 151 Street and Walton Avenue. (Adi Talwar/City Limits)

New York City’s shelter intake system for families with children—known as Prevention Assistance and Temporary Housing, or PATH—is the single point of entry for parents seeking emergency shelter when they have nowhere else to go.

Each year, thousands of infants in New York City are born into homelessness or enter the shelter system within their first year of life. According to the city’s own Department of Homeless Services, once a family reaches PATH, the crisis has already begun. By the time parents arrive there with babies in their arms, instability has hardened into trauma.

PATH is not concerned with housing—it is an intake system designed to determine shelter eligibility, but eligibility only comes after families have fallen far enough to prove crisis. PATH is a system that waits for collapse. That is not a safety net, and it does not safeguard the most vulnerable among us.

Babies do not experience instability the way adults do. Stress, displacement, and uncertainty in the earliest stages of life are not easily undone. So what is shaping these children—their nature, or the environment we place them in? When intervention comes only after eviction or displacement—after a collapse, a breakdown in the family—the damage has already been done. Timing matters. Prevention matters.

We repeat slogans like “children are the future” and “it takes a village,” yet our systems respond only after families are in crisis. How can children imagine a future without a stable home? And where is the village when parents must enter shelter intake—after collapse—just to qualify for help?

PATH was built to manage crisis, not prevent it. Its role is to decide who qualifies for shelter, not who needs housing. As a result, families are forced to fall far enough to be deemed eligible.

PATH could become a more direct road to housing by prioritizing pathways like Pathway Home and, as an upstream measure, partnering with housing initiatives such as Anthos Homes to support immediate housing stabilization and placement—especially for families with infants.

James Baldwin once said we must go the way our blood beats. For too many babies born into shelter, that beat is survival. When instability becomes normal, crisis becomes the body’s language. PATH should be the road to housing, not a test of endurance. Babies deserve a life they can live—not one they must survive.

Rhonda Jackson is a lived-experience community engagement consultant and a leader with the Family Action Board of the Family Homelessness Coalition.*

*Editor’s note: Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York, a member of the Family Homelessness Coalition, is among City Limits’ funders.

The post Opinion: Shelter Intake Should Be the Road to Housing appeared first on City Limits.