ICE is using mass surveillance on American citizens, activists - NPR

SCOTT DETROW, HOST:

Immigration and Customs Enforcement is building a sophisticated surveillance web. It is helping federal agents identify and locate people they want to deport. It's also identifying U.S. citizens who are criticizing and protesting the federal government. NPR's Jude Joffe-Block and Meg Anderson have been digging into this, and they're joining us now. Hey there.

JUDE JOFFE-BLOCK, BYLINE: Hello.

MEG ANDERSON, BYLINE: Hi.

DETROW: So, Meg, I want to start with you. Tell us what you have heard from people who have had interactions with immigration officers.

ANDERSON: Yeah. So let me tell you about the experience of one person that really illustrates what we found. Her name is L. NPR is not using her last name because she's worried about retaliation from the federal government. She lives in Minneapolis, and she told us about following ICE around her neighborhood to document their actions.

L: They would just get out their phones and then come and stand right in front of my car and take pictures of me and take pictures of our license plate. And they frequently would come up to my vehicle and pound on the glass.

ANDERSON: Once, she said she was following ICE officers and realized that they were driving her to her own home.

DETROW: Whoa.

ANDERSON: She felt like the officers were trying to intimidate her. We collected dozens of accounts like this, both through interviews and court documents and in other states beyond Minnesota too.

DETROW: OK, so those are the tactics that people are seeing in person. Jude, let me ask you, what do we know about how technology is being used to do things like this?

JOFFE-BLOCK: Yeah. Well, in these cases of observers who are driving to document ICE and then the agents know their names and, like in L.'s case, know where they live, license plate data seems to be a big part of how these agents are figuring out who the car is registered to. And there's a few ways ICE can get this information, and one is that data brokers buy up this data from state DMVs and sell it to ICE. This technique is also being used on immigrants too. Agents are looking up license plates they can see on the road or in parking lots to identify whether the car is registered to someone who could be deported.

DETROW: And, you know, license plate information seems like just the beginning of all of this. And it's worth flagging these efforts have gotten a lot of funding under this administration, right?

JOFFE-BLOCK: That's right. ICE's budget skyrocketed last year, and that's allowed the agency to invest a lot into new surveillance tech. We also know ICE agents are using facial recognition technology. There's also an app that helps ICE agents find where immigrants who can be deported might live. That's called ELITE. It's made by the company Palantir. And one ICE agent described it in court testimony as showing an interface like Google Maps. ICE also has access to a tool that collects data that can be used to track cellphone locations. And this week, more than 70 Democratic members of Congress wrote a letter urging the agency's watchdog to investigate this.

DETROW: OK, Meg, one other question is what's happening online?

ANDERSON: Yes. So there is surveillance happening online as well. And what we found is it's happening a lot in the form of something called an administrative subpoena. So those can be issued by federal agencies without a judge, and we know that they have already been sent to tech companies demanding to unmask anonymous social media accounts - in this case, accounts that are critical of ICE.

We spoke to one man who got an email from Meta - that's the parent company of Instagram and Facebook - alerting him to a subpoena. He had just shared a post that identified an ICE agent using publicly available information. DHS, though, accused him of doxing the agent. He asked a federal court to block the subpoena, and then, you know, later, the agency did withdraw it. But Nathan Wessler with the ACLU told us that this is still a threat to free speech, even though the agency withdrew that subpoena.

NATHAN WESSLER: There's a long tradition going back to the founding of this country where courts have recognized that sometimes the only way to be able to speak safely without fear of retaliation is to do so without your name attached.

DETROW: On that note, what legal implications do all of these surveillance tools raise?

ANDERSON: Yeah. So legal experts we spoke to brought up concerns in a variety of ways, most notably in threats to the First Amendment. That comes up in the case of those subpoenas and the online criticism. Generally, the right to anonymity is protected. And there are lawsuits in states like Minnesota and Maine alleging that when ICE officers lead people to their homes, things like that, that that amounts to intimidation and violates a protester's freedom of expression. Some lawyers we spoke to also brought up concerns about the Fourth Amendment, which protects people from unreasonable searches. They said some of these tools help DHS access information they would otherwise need a warrant for.

DETROW: And, Jude, what do DHS say about all of this?

JOFFE-BLOCK: Yeah. Well, the agency didn't answer all of our questions about these tools or how they're being used, saying they would not, quote, "reveal law enforcement methods or tactics." But in a statement to NPR, they refuted claims that these tools are unlawful. When it comes to allegations that facial recognition technology violates the Fourth Amendment, the agency said its use is, quote, "governed by established legal authorities and formal privacy oversight." And regarding allegations that the agency is violating the First Amendment, DHS said freedom of speech does not include, quote, "rioting." Though, to be clear, the activists we spoke to were engaged in peaceful protests and observation.

DETROW: That was NPR's Jude Joffe-Block and Meg Anderson. Thanks to you both.

JOFFE-BLOCK: Thanks.

ANDERSON: Thank you.

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