Kat Lonsdorf

But just because there aren't as many federal agents on the ground doesn't mean that people aren't still being tracked.

Right.

Again, we don't know if there's a database of some kind being compiled, even though DHS says there isn't.

But we also know that surveillance is happening online like we just talked about.

So it really doesn't matter if there are agents physically present somewhere or not.

Yeah.

And one thing I'll just add to that is that we have a constitutional right to free speech.

And baked into that right is the ability to criticize the government anonymously.

And all of the surveillance that we've been talking about is making that anonymity increasingly difficult to preserve.

Yeah, thank you.

Yeah, thanks for having us.

ICE's budget has skyrocketed during President Trump's second term, and the administration is taking the unprecedented step of aggregating Americans' personal data and making it more accessible to the agency.

NPR dug through court records and interviewed people to better understand the extensive surveillance apparatus DHS has been building.

Immigration lawyers said their clients had been subjected to facial recognition technology.

Protesters and journalists described agents photographing them and calling them by name,

or knowing their home addresses.

Lawyers worry such tactics violate the Constitution, particularly the First Amendment.

DHS denies that.

Kat Lonsdorf, NPR News, Washington.

Secretary Noem made the announcement on X, saying that the program would be expanded nationally as funding becomes available.