Tracking, Targeting, and Terrorizing: ICE’s Surveillance State

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By Joshua Scheer

I just wrote about the murder of a man in Minneapolis and the country’s descent toward a fascist state, and of course what goes along with that is surveillance. Federal agencies like ICE have publicly boasted about the vast databases they maintain, even labeling community members “domestic threats” simply for standing up for civil rights.
We’ve published many articles on this site about how the state uses technology to spy on us — and now they’re openly showing us what’s happening as they take our pictures and track our movements.

From 2023: “If we think about what we saw in 2013 and the capabilities of governments today,” Snowden told The Guardian, “2013 seems like child’s play.” And it’s only getting worse.

At the same time, we need to recognize that the tools we all use every day — our phones and technology — are also being used against us. Understanding how these systems work is essential if we are going to protect ourselves and find a balance between safety and freedom.

Here is an ICE official publicly explaining the surveillance of so‑called ‘domestic terrorists.

ICE agent asked why he's taking pictures of a legal observer's car, replies: "Cuz we have a nice little database and now you're considered a domestic terrorist. So have fun with that." pic.twitter.com/IbyRqycSc2

— Ken Klippenstein (NSPM-7 Compliant) (@kenklippenstein) January 23, 2026

For more The Department of Homeland Security is quietly rolling out one of the most sweeping domestic intelligence efforts in its history — and the targets aren’t foreign actors or clandestine cells, but ordinary people who dare to film federal agents. According to a DHS official directly involved, immigration officers have been ordered to collect identifying information on anyone recording them and funnel it to intelligence units for a “work‑up”: social‑media tracing, license‑plate searches, and criminal‑history checks.

What’s emerging is a coordinated, nationwide campaign by ICE, Border Patrol, and other DHS agencies to build a watchlist of critics and observers — a list the Trump administration frames as a network of “domestic terrorists.” The policy has already surfaced in encounters from Maine to Minnesota, where agents openly boast about their databases and film civilians in return. And in the killing of Renee Good, the practice appears to have escalated from intimidation to pretext for deadly force.

This is the architecture of a new domestic war on terror — one aimed not at shadowy extremists, but at Americans exercising the basic right to document government power.

The Trump administration’s consolidation of government data into a single AI-driven platform has long been a cause for alarm, and now evidence shows those fears were well-founded. Palantir, a company with a notoriously shaky record on privacy and human rights, is reportedly developing a tool for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that could transform the agency’s surveillance and deportation practices.

According to 404 Media, the system maps potential deportation targets, generates individual dossiers, and even assigns a “confidence score” to a person’s current address. ICE is reportedly using this data to identify locations where large groups of people could be detained. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has also reported that Medicaid data feeds into the tool, raising urgent concerns about privacy violations and the targeting of vulnerable communities.

“Palantir is working on a tool for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that populates a map with potential deportation targets, brings up a dossier on each person, and provides a “confidence score” on the person’s current address,” 404 Media reports today. “ICE is using it to find locations where lots of people it might detain could be based.” 

This isn’t just an abstract threat; it’s a concrete expansion of state power over the lives of immigrants, using private tech to turn data into a weapon. Advocates warn that such tools could lead to indiscriminate surveillance and detention, amplifying the human cost of immigration enforcement. The evidence is clear: the risks we flagged years ago are now a stark reality.

Here is Joesph Cox who has broken the story of ICE and Palantir

From an interview with Ross Gregory Douthat, American author and New York Times columnist, and Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar, discussing their work with ICE.

There is a growing concern when companies profit solely from government contracts, as with Palantir. When a company follows whatever power is in place without considering ethics or critical thinking, we end up with the outcomes we’re seeing now. The headline says it all: ICE relies on Palantir. Just to be clear: the relationship between Palantir and ICE began under the Obama administration, not the Trump administration, and the company has continued working with ICE ever since. Many commentators have criticized Obama for his record as “deporter‑in‑chief,” highlighting his administration’s role in expanding immigration enforcement, it’s clear that this lurch toward fascism didn’t appear overnight. As Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar said: “We pick our customers carefully. We work with the U.S. and its allies. The people voted on this.” In other words, if the country wants mass deportations, so be it—they voted for it. There are many words to describe this moment, but ultimately, it’s time to end all empires.

With all the data available and in the aftermath of Renee Nicole Good’s killing by ICE in south Minneapolis, the now-familiar ritual unfolded: cellphone video surfaced, official statements frayed, and the public was once again forced to interrogate state violence frame by frame. But as researcher Nicole M. Bennett notes, the power of recording law enforcement has entered a far more dangerous phase. The smartphone is no longer just a witness—it is also a tracking device, embedded in a vast surveillance economy that turns documentation into data. Filming ICE may be legally protected speech in many jurisdictions, but it exposes bystanders, journalists, and activists to facial recognition, location tracking, data brokerage, and device seizure. The same footage that challenges state narratives can also feed them, allowing authorities to identify, monitor, and retaliate against those who dare to watch. In this new reality, Bennett argues, the act of bearing witness still matters—but it now carries hidden costs that demand strategic, digital self-defense in an era where accountability and exposure are increasingly inseparable.

For more on the risks and benefits of the phones in our pockets, I recommend two articles from The Conversation. The first, published in April—From Help to Harm: How the Government Is Quietly Repurposing Everyone’s Data for Surveillance—details how information once collected for limited purposes, such as healthcare, tax filing, or public benefits, is increasingly routed through interconnected systems for law enforcement and population monitoring, often with little meaningful oversight. The act of recording federal agents has become both a legal right and a digital hazard in the modern surveillance era. In Filming ICE Is Legal but Exposes You to Digital Tracking — Here’s How to Minimize the Risk, Nicole M. Bennett explains how smartphones, while essential for accountability, also generate metadata and identifiers that can expose recorders to tracking, facial-recognition systems, and other forms of digital visibility beyond the act of filming itself.

The surveillance state isn’t coming—it’s already here. From ICE’s open bragging about databases of “domestic terrorists” to Palantir’s AI-driven tools mapping potential deportation targets, technology has become a weapon against those exercising basic civil rights. The killing of Renee Nicole Good is a stark reminder that state power, when paired with private tech and unchecked data collection, has real, lethal consequences.

We live in an era where the act of witnessing—a video, a photo, a recording—is both a form of resistance and a potential threat to your own safety. Our smartphones, once symbols of freedom and connection, now feed the same systems that can intimidate, track, and target us. Accountability comes at a cost, and that cost is increasingly digital.

But awareness is the first line of defense. Understanding how these systems operate, pushing back against private companies that profit from oppression, and demanding ethical, transparent oversight of government surveillance are the tools we have to fight back. As long as corporations like Palantir continue to monetize state power, and as long as administrations—from Obama to Trump and beyond—treat enforcement as business as usual, the stakes remain high.

This is not a problem for “later.” It is now. Ending this cycle requires more than words—it requires holding power accountable, refusing complicity, and insisting that technology serves justice rather than oppression. Surveillance may be inevitable, but submission is not.

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