ICE Employees Misused Sensitive Data To Harass People, Make Threats, Report Says

Hundreds of employees at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have reportedly faced internal investigations over the past seven years for alleged database misuse, which included stalking and harassment.

Some of the agents went through sensitive databases on behalf of their acquaintances, documents obtained by WIRED showed. Some ICE agents were reportedly investigated for looking up information about coworkers and former lovers, while others reportedly shared their login information with family members.

The International Business Times couldn't verify the information independently.

The WIRED report said ICE agents and contractors were investigated at least 414 times since 2016 for misuse of agency data and computers. Nearly half of the alleged incidents prompted investigations by the ICE's Office of Professional Relations (OPR), which looks into allegations of serious misconduct in criminal and noncriminal cases.

One of the cases that was "referred to management" after an OPR investigation involved a special agent who allegedly received gifts from a Colombian drug trafficker in exchange for secret data. Another probe unraveled the actions of an ICE attorney who allegedly stole the identities of immigrants in an attempt to defraud credit card companies.

In at least 14 cases, the agents were investigated for allegedly making use of agency databases "to harass someone or make threats," WIRED reported.

While the documents did not reveal the measures the agency took against the accused, 24 investigations were categorized as criminal.

"This isn't about a few bad apples; it's about a tree that's rotten to the core. There's no version of mass surveillance that's compatible with civil rights," Albert Fox Cahn, founder and executive director of the nonprofit Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (STOP), said in a statement. "Oftentimes, there's simply no way for the public to know when our private data is misused."

Erik Garcia, organizer and program manager with migrant advocacy organization Long Beach Immigrants Coalition, said it wasn't surprising to find out how ICE agents allegedly abused confidential information.

"It's part of the culture of policing generally, which makes me question whether they should be collecting this data in the first place," Garcia argued.

This is not the first time ICE agents have faced allegations of misuse of data.

In February 2021, Georgetown Law researchers found that ICE agents tapped into a private database that contained millions of utility records while pursuing immigration violators, The Washington Post reported.

"ICE's use of the private database is another example of how government agencies have exploited commercial sources to access information they are not authorized to compile on their own," The Post wrote at the time.

Rights advocacy group American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Northern California, in a report that spanned seven months of investigation, revealed how the ICE queried a nationwide database for license plate location thousands of times every month in 2018.

"In the logs, the reasons ICE provides for its searches of license plate location information raises serious concerns that the agency is using the database without meaningful safeguards and oversight," the ACLU said in its report.

It alleged the agency used the database to conduct surveillance of family members to arrest and deport immigrants. "In addition to being invasive, some searches appear to be wholly inappropriate," the ACLU noted.

The agency also faces allegations of poor living conditions in its detention centers, which activists say have only gotten worse recently.

Last September, an inspection by the Department of Homeland Security's Office of the Inspector General recommended the transfer of all detainees at the Torrance County Detention Facility in New Mexico "unless and until the facility ensures adequate staffing and appropriate living conditions," The Hill reported.

An investigation by the nonprofit Innovation Law Lab revealed that some detainees were "subjected to conditions worse" than what the inspector general found in a previous inspection.