In Maine last month, a woman in Portland was filming an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent when the masked official decided to stop what he was doing. In fact, in a video that quickly went viral, he approached the civilian and delivered a chilling message.
When the woman reminded the ICE agent that her presence there was legal, he responded, “Exactly, that’s what we’re doing,” as he tried to record her and collect her information. Asked why, the federal agent replied, “Because we have a nice little database, and now you’re considered a domestic terrorist.”
Not surprisingly, many wondered whether the Department of Homeland Security had built a previously unannounced government database that featured private American citizens peacefully recording public officials in public places. DHS insisted that despite the ICE agent’s claim, no such files existed, and soon after, Todd Lyons, ICE’s acting director, told senators during sworn testimony, “We do not do that.”
Perhaps not, though the administration’s scrutiny of protesters and critics appears to have reached an alarming stage. The New York Times reported:
The Department of Homeland Security is expanding its efforts to identify Americans who oppose Immigration and Customs Enforcement by sending tech companies legal requests for the names, email addresses, telephone numbers and other identifying data behind social media accounts that track or criticize the agency.
In recent months, Google, Reddit, Discord and Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, have received hundreds of administrative subpoenas from the Department of Homeland Security, according to four government officials and tech employees privy to the requests. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
According to the Times’ report — which has not been independently verified by MS NOW — Google, Meta and Reddit have already complied with some of the requests. (Meta, Google and Reddit declined the Times’ requests for comment.)
What’s more, it’s not the only relevant piece of evidence.
In Minnesota, for example, according to almost 100 sworn statements filed in federal court, federal immigration agents have shown up at protesters’ homes as part of an apparent intimidation campaign.
At about the same time, the public learned of a Minnesota woman who’d participated in local protests and who was approached by an unknown ICE agent who called her by her name. She soon after received an email from DHS saying her Global Entry and Transportation Security Administration travel privileges had been revoked. The message did not include an explanation for the developments.
The same week, The Washington Post reported on a man who lives in a Philadelphia suburb who wrote a nonthreatening email to DHS, asking for mercy for an Afghan asylum seeker. The message, sent to Joseph Dernbach, the lead prosecutor in the Afghan’s case, read in part, “Err on the side of caution. … Apply principles of common sense and decency.”
Within hours of sending the email, the man discovered that federal officials had subpoenaed his Google account. That same day, men with badges knocked on the door of his home.
The Post’s report said the developments left the man with “the relentless feeling of being surveilled in a country where he never imagined he would be.”
If DHS doesn’t have a database filled with protesters, I’m glad. But perhaps there’s room for a public conversation about the scope of the department’s scrutiny of American citizens who’ve done nothing more than disagree with the administration.
