ICE has apparently been tracking the names of protestors in an internal database for months now, according to two officials who spoke with Reuters anonymously. It has names, photos, locations, license plates and “actions that provoked suspicion,” they said — adding that it was put together in an effort to spot patterns that could lead to charges against people. DHS said that it’s not maintaining a database of U.S. “domestic terrorists,” but it does track “threats, assaults and obstructions” against officers.
It’s not just that database, either. ICE has been tracking cars for a long time now. Back in November, we told you about an app they used called “Mobile Companion” which pairs photos of license plates to data from Motorola Solutions and Thomson Reuters. Using Motorola’s huge network of license plate-scanning cameras, they can track where a vehicle has been, where it frequently goes, and other vehicles it has traveled with. It also gives them access to all sorts of personal data, like your Experian credit report, marriage records, voter information, driver’s license records, and more. It’s some real dystopian stuff. Some states are doing their best to keep ICE out of their license plate databases, as we explained, but it seems they are finding ways around that roadblock.
Reuters spoke with a University of South Carolina School of Law professor who focuses primarily on policing, and he said in the past that Title 18, Section 111 has been used to charge assaults on officers, and it specifically states that the alleged crime must be committed “forcibly.” It doesn’t take a genius to realize that following someone in their car isn’t much of a forcible assault, and the judiciary seems to agree.
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In a January order, a federal judge in Minneapolis said that a vehicle following ICE at “an appropriate distance” didn’t justify a traffic stop or arrest. That ruling was paused by an appeals court 10 days later.
You know things are bad when even former ICE officials are saying the situation is getting out of hand. Deborah Fleischaker, a top ICE official under the Biden administration, said it was both “inappropriate and unconstitutional” to intimate and arrest people just because they were following ICE officers in their cars, according to Reuters. She added that it was “not a crime, and should not be treated as such.”
Current DHS spokesperson McLaughlin feels otherwise.
“When agitators willingly involve themselves and inject themselves in law enforcement operations, they are risking arrest as well as jeopardizing the safety of themselves and those around them,” she told Reuters.
Of course, sometimes ICE throws teargas in a car full of children, landing three in the hospital, just because they dared to park near a protest. It’s a story we told you about earlier this year, and one of the children — a six-month-old — had to be administered CPR right then and there.
