ICE's $100 Million Surveillance Programme Could Sweep Ordinary Citizens Into Intelligence Files

Civil liberties groups say ICE’s planned intelligence network could map the private relationships of millions of US residents (Credit: Photo: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement/Wikimedia Commons Public Domain)

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is fast-tracking a $100 million (£75 million) surveillance programme to place 142 intelligence agents across more than two dozen US cities, a move experts warn could expose ordinary citizens to government scrutiny, not just immigrants.

The programme, Enforcement and Removal Operations Overwatch and National Security Enforcement (ERO ONE), appeared in a statement of work published on 18 September. Under the proposal, contractors would analyse classified and unclassified data to identify 'trends, patterns, relationships, threats, and intelligence gaps' for ICE deportation missions.