Overview
- Federal spending data show roughly $1.4 billion in ICE contracts in September, including $3.75 million for Clearview AI facial recognition and $4.6 million for a mobile iris‑scanning app.
- Reporting describes recent purchases that enable remote smartphone hacking and location monitoring without a court warrant, drawing constitutional concerns from lawmakers and civil-rights groups.
- A redacted acquisition document obtained by 404 Media details a proposed PenLink package to compile and analyze billions of daily location signals from hundreds of millions of mobile devices.
- House Democrats asked Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to explain an ICE spyware deal involving Graphite from Paragon, warning of potential targeting of immigrants, protesters and journalists, and they have not received a response.
- ICE is expanding social-media monitoring hubs in Vermont and California to generate investigative leads, while the White House says the capabilities target organized political violence and domestic terrorism.