Immigration and Customs Enforcement is using spyware tools that can intercept encrypted messages as part of the agency’s efforts to disrupt fentanyl traffickers, according to a letter sent last week by the agency’s acting director, Todd Lyons.
Lyons’ letter, which was reviewed by NPR, said ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) is using various tools as part of its mission to disrupt and dismantle foreign terrorist organizations, “particularly those involved in the trafficking of fentanyl.”
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His letter, dated April 1, was a belated response to an October inquiry from three Democratic members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform expressing concern about the agency’s potential use of the spyware Graphite, which was created by an Israeli company, Paragon Solutions.
The letter is the first time ICE has indicated it is using Graphite. The agency initially signed a $2 million contract with Paragon Solutions for an unspecified software product at the end of the Biden administration. But the contract was swiftly paused until it was revived by the Trump administration last fall.
Graphite uses what is known as “zero click” technology so that it can gain access to encrypted messages on a targeted device even if the user never clicks on a link.
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Lyons’ confirmation that the agency is using spyware comes as ICE has ramped up its use of surveillance technologies to find people in the U.S. without authorization as part of the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign. Those tools have also been used extensively on American citizens who have protested ICE’s activities. The revelation also comes shortly before Congress is set to debate whether to reauthorize a surveillance law, and whether to close a legal loophole that allows the federal government to buy data about millions of Americans in bulk from commercial data brokers.
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