The tools in ICE's arsenal
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Masks, guns and tactical gear are unmistakable hallmarks of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.
Less visible is an array of intrusive technologies helping ICE locate and track undocumented immigrants and, increasingly, citizens opposed to the government’s deportation campaign.
These technologies, both visible and invisible, are transforming the front lines of immigration enforcement and political protest across America today.
Federal immigration officers fanning out across Minnesota and other parts of the country are newly equipped with an array of state-of-the-art surveillance technologies, thanks to a bill passed this past summer that transformed Immigration and Customs Enforcement into the country’s most highly funded law enforcement agency. ICE has wasted no time spending its war chest, buying new tools ranging from biometric trackers to mobile phone location databases, spyware and drones, while loosening restrictions on how it uses some of these technologies.
These new surveillance powers come at a time when ICE is also pushing the bounds of its traditional role of immigration enforcement. In recent months, ICE leaders, backed by top Trump administration officials, have asserted the authority to use all available tools to monitor and investigate anti-ICE protester networks, including U.S. citizens. Democratic lawmakers and civil rights groups say the agency’s expanding use of its surveillance tools infringes on privacy and free speech rights of immigrants and U.S. citizens alike.
