The FBI is surveilling immigration protest groups, calling them "anarchist extremists" and potential domestic terror threats, according to a document obtained by Yahoo News.
The FBI office in Phoenix, Arizona, distributed an "external intelligence note" to law enforcement and government agencies, detailing intelligence gathering from people with "direct access" to the protest groups and is monitoring their social media, according to the report.
The immigration protest groups are "increasingly arming themselves and using lethal force to further their goals," according to the May 30, 2019, external intelligence note, Yahoo News reported.
"FBI Phoenix assesses anarchist extremists (AEs) very likely are increasing the targeting of U.S. Government . . . law enforcement personnel and facilities along the Arizona border, increasing the risk of armed conflict," the note read, per the report. "FBI Phoenix also assesses Arizona-based AEs likely are increasingly arming themselves and using lethal force to further their goals and in confrontations with ideologically opposed groups."
University of Chicago law professor Geoffrey Stone said the surveillance might be a violation of free speech, if not civil liberties, according to Yahoo News.
"The document raises potential legal concerns in a gray area not yet tested by the courts," Stone, an aide for former President Barack Obama, told Yahoo News.
"If you're investigating antiwar and anti-Trump groups, you run the risk of interfering with free speech rights."
An FBI spokesperson stressed to Yahoo News the note represented just the Phoenix office actions and was a routine sharing of information.
"These products are intended to be informative in nature, and as such, they contain appropriate caveats to describe the confidence in the sourcing of information and the likelihood of the assessment," the FBI spokesperson told Yahoo News. "Additionally, when written at a local level, these products will note that the perspective offered may be limited to the field office's area of responsibility."
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