Consider This from NPR - What it’s like to get caught in ICE’s surveillance web

Episode Date: March 5, 2026

Immigration and Customs Enforcement is using a variety of tools to surveil folks they want to intimidate and apprehend. That web helps federal agents find people to deport. But it also allows them to identify U.S. citizens who criticize the federal government and its policies.NPR has compiled dozens of stories of people caught up in the surveillance web. Some were monitoring ICE activities and found themselves in interactions with agents who identify them by their names and home addresses. NPR’s Scott Detrow talks with Meg Anderson and Jude Joffe-Block who have been collecting the stories, and tracking ICE’s surveillance tactics.For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at [e-mail] from NPR’s Kat Lonsdorf contributed to this story. This episode was produced by Gabriel Sanchez and Karen Zamora, with audio engineering by Ted Mebane. It was edited by Alina Hartounian, John Ketchum and Sarah Handel.Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

A couple of months ago in Minneapolis, a woman named Emily was following an ICE vehicle around to keep tabs on it. We're only using her first name because she fears retribution from the federal government. Emily told NPR that on this particular day, the vehicle she was following came to an abrupt stop. I stopped as well and I waited. And then someone leaned out of the passenger side of that SUV. A masked federal agent leaned out of the window, took a picture of her car, and a picture of her. As I tried to leave, the SUV flipped around and suddenly sped directly towards me. And I thought that they were going to teeble me, like, deliberately run right into my driver's side door.

But right before they hit me, they braked really hard. Female agent rolled down the window and leaned out and addressed Emily by name. And she yelled, Emily, Emily, we're going to take you home. And she looked at her phone and it looked like she was reading off my address. Like, she recited my home address. Emily says she has no idea how they pulled up her information so quickly. Their message was not subtle, right? They were, in effect, saying we see you, we can get to you whenever we want to.

And it did scare me. The Department of Homeland Security has told NPR, quote, there is no database of, quote, domestic terrorists run by DHS. Congressman Lou Correa, a Democrat from California, asked DHS Secretary Kristy Knoem about it during hearing in the House yesterday. One of your ICE officers in Maine recently told it an observer that they're creating a database. Are you creating a database, ma'am? No, we're not creating a database. Noam will soon be out of that job. President Trump announced you will leave the post at the end of the month.

NPR has compiled dozens of accounts of people caught up in the surveillance web just like Emily. They add another layer to our understanding of the broad tools that DHS, and more specifically ICE, are using to monitor people they seek to deport and to intimidate U.S. citizens critical of their policies. Consider this. What does it like to be caught up in DHS's surveillance web? From NPR, I'm Scott Detrow. It's Consider This from NPR. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is using a variety of tools to surveil people they want to intimidate and apprehend. That web helps federal agents find people they want to deport, but it also allows them to identify U.S. citizens.

who criticize and protest the federal government and its policies. NPR's Jude Jaffe Block and Meg Anderson have been digging into this and they are joining us now. Hey there. Hello. Hi. So Meg, I want to start with you. Tell us what you have heard from people who have had interactions with immigration officers. Yeah. So let me tell you about the experience of one person that really illustrates what we found. Her name is L and PR 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. 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. Once she said she was following ICE officers and realized that they were driving her to her own home. 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. Okay, 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? Yeah, well, in these cases of observers who are driving to document ICE and then 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. 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? 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 cell phone locations. And this week, more than 70 Democratic members of Congress wrote a letter urging the agency's watchdog to investigate this. Okay, Meg, one other question is what's happening online? 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 advice. 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 a 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,

And 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. 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. On that note, what legal implications do all of these surveillance tools raise? Yeah.

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 bleed people to their homes, things like that, that amounts to intimidation and violates a protesters' 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.

And Jude, what did DHS say about all of this? 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. That was NPR's Jew Jaffe Block and Megha Anderson. Thanks to you both. Thanks. Thank you. Reporting from NPR's Kat Lonsdorf contributed to the story. This episode was produced by Gabriel Sanchez and Karen Zamora.

with audio engineering by Ted Mebe. It was edited by Alina Hartunian, John Ketchum, and Sarah Handel. Our executive producer is Sammy Yenigan. It's considered this from NPR. I'm Scott Detrow.