Leaked documents show scale of ICE surveillance
Newly leaked documents detailing a slew of secret programs conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement shed light on the scale of its operations and how it gathers intelligence on immigrants and citizens.
The documents, obtained and published by journalist Ken Klippenstein, come from an anonymous “outraged” Border Patrol official. They detail 21 ICE operations, with names like Benchwarmer, Tidal Wave, Abracadabra and others, that have resulted in the apprehensions of at least 6,852 people since June and have utilized thousands of ICE officers and assets.
Also shown in the leak were methods by which ICE collects its intelligence. The nationwide Operation Abracadabra was launched after ICE interviewed “100% of individuals apprehended to gather intelligence” to “identify follow-on targets such as stash houses and individuals conducting illegal activity.”
The purpose of the operation was to create criminal links to all individuals accused of illegally entering into in the United States. “Tying every individual who crosses the border illegally to a Foreign Terrorist Organization, a Transnational Criminal Organization, and/or utilizing the intelligence to develop targets,” one document reads.
In the on-going Operation Benchwarmer, some 2,000 “intelligence assets” have reportedly been deployed across the country. The documents say ICE officers are dressing in “plainclothes” in order to covertly collect “information not normally gained during formal interviews.”
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“Plainclothes agents have been embedded in transport vans, sally ports, processing areas, and detention cells to gather important tactical intelligence and or information,” a document on Benchwarmer reads.
The leaks come amid increased national tensions over ICE’s conduct. The outcry from the killing of Renee Nicole Good by ICE officer Jonathan Ross, along with the subsequent protests and deteriorating situation in Minneapolis have ratcheted up the temperature between the American public and ICE.
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