How ICE's Explosive Growth Threatens Every American

WIRED

You’ve probably seen the aggressive tactics employed by Immigrations Customs and Enforcement agents at the dawn of the second Trump administration. While many people find these videos disturbing, others question why it should matter to them at all if they’re not in the country illegally. Today, WIRED breaks down how ICE’s unprecedented expansion will actually affect every person in the US—citizen or otherwise.  Director: Efrat Kashai Director of Photography: Mar Alfonso Editor: Matthew Colby; Louis Lalire Host: Andrew Couts Line Producer: Jamie Rasmussen Associate Producer: Paul Gulyas Production Manager: Peter Brunette Production Coordinator: Rhyan Lark Camera Operator: Jeremy Harris Gaffer: Salif Soumahoro Sound Mixer: Michael Guggino Production Assistant: Shanti Cuizon-Burden Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin Supervising Editor: Eduardo Araujo; Erica DeLeo Assistant Editor: Billy Ward

Transcript

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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