00:00These days it seems like not an hour goes by without another brutal arrest by
00:04Immigration and Customs Enforcement. You've probably seen the aggressive
00:07tactics in videos online. While many people find these videos really
00:10disturbing, others question why this matters to them at all. If they're not
00:14here in the US illegally, do they really have to care? Isn't this just law
00:17enforcement in action? Today we're gonna be breaking down how ICE's expansion of
00:21power will impact everybody in the US. This is Incognito Mode.
00:30Social media monitoring is one of the big ways that the US government
00:35surveils a lot of people. In fact, if you're posting online, they're probably
00:39surveilling you right now. The State Department has expanded its use of
00:42social media surveillance to monitor anybody who wants to enter the US. But
00:46even if you're not a traveler here, you're probably being surveilled. The
00:49Independent reports that ICE is expanding its use of social media surveillance to
00:52search for anti-ICE sentiment. So if you're going to a protest or posting
00:56about ICE online in ways that they might not like, you're probably getting
00:59scooped up into a surveillance machine you might not even know exists. It's been
01:03reported that one social media surveillance tool used by government
01:06agencies, including ICE, is SocialNet, which can reportedly monitor up to 200
01:11websites, social media platforms, and other online spaces. Some of these
01:15platforms include Facebook, Instagram, X, Blue Sky, TikTok, Reddit, PayPal, OnlyFans,
01:21Cash App, WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, Chess.com for some reason. Pretty much anywhere you are
01:26online, SocialNet is probably watching. It's been reported that ICE's Homeland
01:30Security Investigations Division has directly contracted with Shadow Dragon,
01:34which makes SocialNet. The problem with social media surveillance is that by its
01:38very nature, it's a massive dragnet operation. They're collecting data on
01:41basically everyone, especially anyone who's posting online all the time. This
01:45massive amount of data that's being collected doesn't just go away. All this
01:48data is likely being stored and can potentially be used at any point in the
01:52future to target you for anything. So right now, these tools are being used to
01:55target one kind of speech, but in the future, an administration could choose to
01:58use it to target something entirely different. A big problem with social
02:01media surveillance is that it can chill speech. You might not post about things
02:05online if you know that ICE agents or other law enforcement are flagging your
02:09speech just because you said a certain keyword or expressed a certain sentiment.
02:12That's going to dissuade people from exercising their First Amendment rights,
02:16going to protests, or speaking out against things they disagree with.
02:22One of the first ways you might think of ICE impacting you is surveillance.
02:25Facial recognition is one of the ways we know that ICE is targeting pretty much
02:29anybody they come across who they find suspicious. Immigration officials have
02:32long used facial recognition at the border, but now agents can use it right on their phones.
02:36Using an app called Mobile Fortify, they can just point their camera at you and run your
02:40face through a bunch of different databases that does identity verification on the fly.
02:44So why is this a problem? Well, first of all, Mobile Fortify, like other facial
02:48recognition systems, has a margin of error. That means it can bring up false positives.
02:53So the app might identify you as being somebody who you're not,
02:56and maybe that person is a hardened criminal who's in the US illegally and you might get detained.
03:00The other issue is what we call surveillance creep. This means that powerful surveillance tools
03:05are being used in more and more ways and is becoming normalized.
03:08It might be ICE agents using it today, but you can imagine the situation where a police officer is
03:14standing on a corner and just pointing his phone at everybody trying to catch a criminal.
03:18Now, you might think this kind of surveillance isn't a big deal, and you might think,
03:21hey, if cops are catching more criminals, that's great. The problem is that once a surveillance power
03:26is introduced, it's very rare that it gets taken away. While you might agree with the law enforcement
03:31actions of one administration, another administration might have totally different
03:34priorities and totally different targets. As we see in all types of situations, technology moves
03:39faster than laws. As of now, there's no federal law regulating the use of facial recognition by
03:44ICE or any other law enforcement agency.
03:49ICE's use of data brokers is another form of digital surveillance. ICE isn't just buying data one-off.
03:55They also have contracts with data brokers like LexisNexis, which gives thousands of agents access to
04:01all types of data about anyone they're targeting. This means they know who you are, who you know,
04:06who your family members are, what your criminal history is, whether you own a boat or a car.
04:10All this information is readily available to ICE for anyone who they want to target. ICE is making
04:15use of something called the data broker loophole, which allows the agency to just buy data that they
04:20might otherwise have to obtain through a subpoena or a warrant. ICE has reportedly used the data broker
04:25loophole to get around Colorado's sanctuary cities laws, which prevent local police from sharing
04:30information with the agency. ICE was able to just buy data on targets rather than getting it through a
04:34process that involves judicial review. ICE has a program known as 287G, which allows it to deputize
04:43local and state police to help in deportation actions. Under 287G, ICE has agreements with some
04:48800 departments across 40 states with dozens more pending. This is all part of the agency's efforts
04:53to rapidly increase enforcement actions. We're not asking them to be immigration officers,
04:57we're asking them to help us. Cops working with the cops to keep New York safe. Named Operation Tidal Wave,
05:02ICE's expansion of 287G means a massive amount of resources across the country are being devoted
05:08just towards issues of immigration and deportation. Even if you think immigration is the most pressing
05:13issue, getting local law enforcement involved can have consequences beyond what you might expect.
05:18First of all, local police need to have a relationship with their community so that people
05:21can trust them when they call to report a crime. If your family has mixed immigration status or even if
05:26you just look a certain way, you may be more unlikely to call the police and report a crime,
05:30and that makes everybody less safe. Another issue is that local police have limited budgets. This
05:35inevitably means that resources are going to be diverted from other things like investigating
05:39thefts or murders or child abductions. With resources from the federal government to your local police
05:44being diverted towards immigration issues, all types of other things are going to go ignored or underfunded.
05:53As ICE's power is expanding, it's sweeping up even more people into its crosshairs,
05:57not just immigrants. For example, in July 2025, Wired reported on a bulletin from the Department of
06:02Homeland Security which oversees ICE. The memo characterized regular activities like riding
06:08a skateboard or a bicycle as running reconnaissance for protesters and indicative of potential violence.
06:14We've also seen ICE agents arrest US citizens who were nearby while they were conducting raids and
06:18arrests. According to Wired reporting, protesters are subject to all types of social media surveillance,
06:24with law enforcement building dossiers on them that can include their names, their affiliations,
06:28and the things they say online. This is a perfect example of how these tools can be turned against
06:33anyone an administration deems problematic. Founded in 2003 in the wake of 9-11 under the
06:42task of increasing national security, ICE has since become one of the most dominant law enforcement agencies
06:47in the United States and is poised to reach its apex under the second Trump administration which has
06:51promised mass deportations on a historic scale. Even though news of ICE arrests and detentions
07:04are happening all the time, it's about to get even bigger. Congress recently allocated some 170 billion
07:10dollars towards immigration enforcement, making it more heavily funded than any other law enforcement
07:14agency in the United States, including the FBI and the DEA. While the Trump administration has framed ICE's
07:20actions as removing criminals from our communities, 65% of people targeted by ICE have no criminal
07:26convictions and 93% have no violent convictions. What this looks like on the ground is masked,
07:32unidentified ICE agents storming into restaurants and other businesses and snatching people off the
07:36street even if they've never been involved in any crime at all. Agents are even arresting people at
07:40courthouses when they show up for their immigration court appointments. Even green card holders have been
07:45targeted. So it's not just undocumented criminal immigrants who are being targeted, it's pretty
07:49much anybody who has a vulnerable immigration status. On paper, ICE's detention rate has soared
07:54to 140% of the capacity of detention centers. This has led to massive overcrowding, unsanitary conditions,
08:00lack of medical care, and other issues within detention centers. And it's only poised to get worse.
08:05We are looking to set a goal of a minimum of 3,000 arrests for ICE every day, and President Trump is
08:14going to keep pushing to get that number up higher. In June, ICE agents arrested an average of 1,200
08:19people a day. That's nearly twice as many as during the first 100 days of the second Trump administration.
08:28There's very little anyone can do to push back against ICE's enforcement actions, but some people are
08:32trying. Apps like ICE Block allow people to identify ICE agents, where they are, what they look like,
08:38and even what their vehicles are. But even that can come with consequences. The Trump administration
08:42has threatened the developer of ICE Block with prosecution, and people have criticized the app
08:47for endangering ICE agents. The Trump administration has also equated revealing ICE agents' identities as
08:53illegal doxing. We should just note that making an app like ICE Block or publishing an ICE agent's personal
08:58information is, according to legal experts, protected by the First Amendment.
09:05The disappearance of hundreds of thousands or even millions of people is going to change
09:09American life, regardless of your views on immigration. This can happen in small ways,
09:13from people you know suddenly vanishing, and big ways to having fewer people in the American economy,
09:19and thus making it shrink. No matter who you are, and no matter what you think about immigration,
09:23or ISIS tactics, or the second Trump administration, mass deportations are going to have an impact on
09:28an impact on your life. This has been Incognito Mode. Until next time.
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