As digital activists track ICE at home, the agency’s controversial reputation has now crossed borders, fueling protests and unease over its planned role in security operations at the Winter Olympics in Italy.
As Immigration and Customs Enforcement expands its surveillance reach under the Trump administration’s deportation drive, a loose network of activists, technologists and hackers is fighting back online, using encrypted messaging, crowd sourced maps and data leaks to track the agency’s movements.
Federal agencies have sharply increased their use of domestic surveillance tools in recent months, part of an effort to accelerate mass deportations and deter protests in major American cities. At the same time, digital resistance to ICE operations has surged, with websites, messaging channels and apps emerging to alert communities to raids and identify agents in the field.
“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, a senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
The escalation reflects a broader technological standoff between federal law enforcement and online activists, unfolding amid President Donald Trump’s renewed immigration crackdown and an expanded federal presence in cities like Minneapolis, where two people have been shot and killed by ICE agents in recent weeks.
A surveillance buildup
ICE’s growing digital footprint has been fueled by new funding approved under President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill. The agency has expanded contracts with Palantir and with data brokers that collect and sell sensitive information on Americans, including location histories and home addresses. It has also gained access to facial recognition tools and forensic software capable of extracting data from cellphones.
ICE has been granted permission to tap sensitive databases housed in other federal agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service, Medicaid and the Social Security Administration.
The surveillance net extends beyond federal systems. Police departments across the country rely on license plate recognition cameras operated by private firms like Flock Safety. Though designed for local law enforcement, the system has reportedly been searched on behalf of ICE.
Last month, a YouTuber identified a security flaw that exposed Flock Safety’s artificial intelligence powered cameras to the internet, highlighting concerns about how widely such systems are shared and how loosely they are secured.
Tracking the trackers
In response, communities targeted by immigration enforcement have turned to digital tools of their own.
Residents have built platforms to report ICE raid locations, map surveillance cameras and detect law enforcement devices through Bluetooth signals. Encrypted messaging apps like Signal are being used to alert neighbors when ICE vehicles are spotted nearby.
Hacktivist groups have also entered the fray. Cybercriminal collectives better known for ransomware attacks have released names and personal information of hundreds of ICE and Department of Homeland Security officials. Last week, personal details belonging to thousands of ICE and Border Patrol employees were leaked in a DHS data breach.
The tactics echo earlier moments of digital protest. During the Black Lives Matter demonstrations in 2020, hackers disrupted police radio communications in Texas. Anonymous targeted the Minneapolis Police Department’s website after the killing of George Floyd.
Pushback from Washington
The Trump administration has moved aggressively to curb the spread of information about ICE operations.
Meta this week blocked Facebook, Instagram and Threads users from sharing a database that claimed to contain thousands of names and photos of ICE agents, citing privacy concerns.
On Monday, FBI Director Kash Patel announced an investigation into claims that Minnesota residents were using Signal to share the locations of ICE agents. The bureau declined to comment.
Attorney General Pam Bondi has argued that ICE tracking apps place agents at risk. In October, her office cited apps including Red Dot, DeICER and ICEBlock, moves that led Google and Apple to remove them from their app stores.
A Justice Department spokesperson said 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 assertion that such tools endanger officers.
Earlier this month, the Department of Homeland Security sought subpoena power to identify users behind an anonymous Instagram account that warned residents about immigration raids in Pennsylvania. The subpoena was later withdrawn.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem also accused a CBS News journalist of attempting to “dox” an ICE agent after the reporter named a deportation officer during an interview.
From Minneapolis to Milan
The growing controversy around ICE has now spilled beyond the United States.
This week, U.S. officials confirmed that a branch of ICE would be sent to Italy to support American security operations during the Winter Olympics, which begin on Feb. 6. The announcement prompted alarm and anger among Italian officials, coming amid global scrutiny of ICE following a fatal shooting involving an agent in Minneapolis.
“This is a militia that kills… of course they’re not welcome in Milan,” the city’s mayor, Beppe Sala, told Italian radio.
Italy’s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, sought to defuse the backlash, saying “it’s not like the [Nazi] SS are coming,” remarks he made during a Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony.
The Department of Homeland Security emphasized that “all security operations at the Olympics are directed and managed exclusively by Italian authorities.” Italian officials said ICE agents would not operate on Italian streets and that U.S. agencies would instead work from an operations room at the American consulate in Milan.
U.S. officials said the role of Homeland Security Investigations, which is part of ICE, would be “strictly supportive – working with the Diplomatic Security Service and Italian authorities to vet and mitigate risks from transnational criminal organisations.”
It would “obviously” not conduct immigration enforcement outside the United States, homeland security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said.
Still, images from Minneapolis have fueled unease. An ICE agent fatally shot Renee Nicole Good on Jan. 7, triggering nationwide protests. In a separate incident days later, journalists from Italian public broadcaster Rai said ICE officials threatened them while they were reporting in Minneapolis, with one agent warning that their car window would be smashed if filming continued.
“I believe [ICE agents] shouldn’t come to Italy because they don’t guarantee they conform to our democratic way of ensuring security,” Mr. Sala said in a later interview.
A legal fight over speech
In November, the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed suit against DHS and the Justice Department, arguing that the administration unlawfully pressured technology companies to suppress protected speech.
“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,” Mr. Trujilo said.
The case raises unresolved questions about where public safety ends and censorship begins, and whether sharing information about law enforcement activity constitutes protected speech in an era of pervasive surveillance.
For now, the digital arms race continues. Each time an app disappears, another emerges. Each new surveillance contract appears to generate a corresponding wave of countermeasures online.
What has taken shape is not just a fight over immigration policy, but a broader struggle over power, visibility and accountability in an age when the watchers are themselves being watched.
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