ICE Deploys Warrantless Phone Tracking System

ICE acquired access to Tangles and Webloc, surveillance systems capable of monitoring mobile phones across entire neighborhoods without warrants, according to material obtained by 404 Media. The systems track device movements over time and follow individuals from workplaces to homes and other locations by querying commercial location data acquired from hundreds of millions of phones through Penlink.

An internal ICE legal analysis confirms that this location data can be accessed without judicial authorization. The purchase occurs during the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign and intensified suppression of protected speech, according to civil liberties organizations tracking the deployment.

Nathan Freed Wessler, deputy project director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, characterized the tool as dangerous when deployed by an agency without adequate oversight. He stated the granular location information creates detailed profiles of individuals’ movements, associations, and routines.

The surveillance capability directly enables ICE enforcement operations by identifying and tracking undocumented immigrants and their networks at scale. The warrantless access to commercial location data extracted from hundreds of millions of phones demonstrates mass surveillance infrastructure operating without individualized probable cause or judicial review.

This deployment reflects the Trump administration’s expansion of interior immigration enforcement capabilities while simultaneously restricting Americans’ freedom of association and movement through dragnet surveillance practices.

(Source: https://www.404media.co/inside-ices-tool-to-monitor-phones-in-entire-neighborhoods/)