Jude Joffe Block

ICE's acting director, Todd Lyons, described for the first time his agency's use of spyware in a letter last week to Democratic House members.

It was a response to questions the lawmakers had sent six months ago.

Lyons said he greenlit ICE's use of tools to address challenges posed by transnational criminal groups and fentanyl traffickers using encrypted communications.

Privacy and civil liberties advocates say there are not sufficient regulations and transparency protocols to ensure ICE does not abuse spyware.

Foreign governments have used graphite in the past to target journalists and activists and access their encrypted messages.

Jude Jaffeblock, NPR News.

When someone makes me feel like I have to prove something to them, I just walk away.

I'm like, seek help.

And it's very dangerous because those three things, social security number, driver's license number and date of birth, are the holy trinity of identity theft.

The pattern appears to be as soon as people become vocal critics of what's happening in immigration enforcement, they get an email from their social media company that says the government has requested your data.

Yeah, well, in these cases of observers who are driving to document ICE and then agents know their names and like in Elle'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.

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.