Ice Has Expanded Its Mass Surveillance Efforts. Online Activists Are Fighting Back.

Federal agencies have expanded their use of domestic surveillance to carry out mass deportations and crack down on protesters. Now, online activists and hacker groups are deploying their own arsenal of digital tools to fight back.

In recent weeks, efforts to track ICE agents’ movements and identities have exploded online, including sites to report ICE raid locations. Even prolific cybercriminal collectives — better known for their ransomware attacks on luxury carmakers — are joining the fray by releasing the names and personal information of hundreds of ICE and DHS officials online.

And despite sweeping efforts to swat down these anti-ICE tools, new apps or websites continue to pop up.

“Even when the government pushes to block high-profile apps or webpages, people will continue to share information with their community to keep each other safe,” said Mario Trujilo, senior staff attorney for the data privacy advocacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation’s civil liberties team.

These hacktivist moves come in response to the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda and heightened federal presence in U.S. cities, including Minnesota, where two people have been shot and killed by ICE agents in recent weeks.

President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill gave ICE a major funding injection, which the agency has used to boost its surveillance toolkit. Its vast expansion of domestic spying equipment includes contracts with Israeli spyware company Paragon and contracts with Palantir, as well as deals with a forensic phone-cracking tool used for analyzing data on cellphones; a data broker, which collects and sells sensitive digital information on Americans, including geolocation history and addresses;and facial recognition technology used to conduct ICE operations in U.S. cities.

The Trump administration has also given ICE permission to access troves of sensitive data housed in other federal agencies — including data from the IRS, Medicaid and Social Security Administration.

To push back, people across the country are using social media and encrypted messaging apps to track ICE vehicles and identify agents.

Last month, a YouTuber identified a security flaw in a nationwide surveillance system used by law enforcementthat exposed its AI-powered cameras to the internet. Flock Safety, a nationwide license plate recognition software with cameras installed across the country, allows local law enforcement to access its surveillance systems. But police officers have reportedly also conducted searches of Flock’s nationwide camera network on behalf of ICE.

Residents in communities targeted by the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown have also built tools to report ICE raid locations, map Flock Safety cameras and detect surveillance devices used by law enforcement through Bluetooth signals to chronicle ICE and CBP activity in their communities.

And last week, the personal details of thousands of ICE and Border Patrol staff were leaked in a DHS data breach.

It’s not the first time protesters have used digital tools in response to clashes with law enforcement. In 2020, hackers interfered with a Texas police department’s radio during Black Lives Matter protests to muddle communication between squad patrols. And Anonymous, an international hacktivist collective, targeted the Minneapolis police department’s website with a cyberattack after an officer killed George Floyd in 2020.

Meanwhile, Trump administration officials, as well as big tech companies, are working to curb online discourse about ICE operations.

Meta this week stopped Facebook, Instagram and Threads users from sharing a database claiming to contain thousands of names and photos of ICE agents, citing privacy concerns.

On Monday, FBI Director Kash Patel announced the launch of an investigation into claims that Minnesota residents were using the encrypted messaging app Signal to share details on the whereabouts of ICE agents. The FBI declined to comment on the investigation.

Attorney General Pam Bondi claimed in October that ICE-tracking apps, such as Red Dot, DeICER and ICEBlock, put immigration enforcement agents at risk, resulting in Google and Apple removing the apps from their respective online stores.

A spokesperson for DOJ told POLITICO in an email that the department “has demanded the removal of several ICE tracking apps, including the ICEBlock app that was removed from Apple’s App store,” echoing Bondi’s claims that ICE-tracking apps can put agents at risk.

Earlier this month, the Department of Homeland Security attempted to secure subpoena power to identify users behind an anonymous Instagram account that warned residents about immigration raids in Pennsylvania. The department has since withdrawn the subpoena. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem also recently accused a CBS News journalist of trying to “dox” an ICE agent after the reporter said the name of an ICE deportation officer in an interview.

EFF filed a lawsuit in November against DHS and DOJ over the removal of the apps from online app stores, alleging that the administration unlawfully pressured the tech companies into bending to their will.

“The government’s coercion of Apple, Google, and Meta is part of a bigger pattern to try and intimidate people who speak out against unpopular and illegal immigration tactics,” Trujilo said.