Kenneth Glad
Government files can shape later encounters with authorities in ways the public rarely sees. That uncertainty is now driving a wider dispute over protest, privacy and federal power.
A letter reviewed by NPR has intensified scrutiny of how ICE handles information gathered from people who protest or observe immigration operations.
ICE says it does not maintain a database of U.S. citizens protesting the agency. Still, the April 21 letter from then-acting ICE director Todd Lyons says certain details from encounters may be kept as official government records.
The distinction is important because ICE is part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), a cabinet-level department that oversees immigration enforcement, border security and several federal law-enforcement agencies, meaning lawmakers still want to know where such records may be stored and who can access them.
Civil liberties groups question the distinction
Lyons told lawmakers that ICE may collect biographic, biometric and situational information when people are suspected of possible federal violations, interference, or safety threats.
That distinction matters because official records can influence later travel checks, surveillance decisions, or law enforcement encounters, even when no arrest occurs.
Civil liberties lawyers told NPR that the letter appears to confirm that information on people who are not charged can still be retained in existing government systems.
In Maine, pediatric occupational therapist Xenia Pantos told NPR that they briefly stopped near an ICE operation in Portland in January, kept their distance and did not speak with agents.
Their spouse, nonprofit consultant Carly Williams, later said she received a blocked call from a man who identified himself as calling from DHS.
Williams told NPR he warned that people doing “that type of thing” were being added to a domestic terrorist watch list.
“That was a pretty terrifying phone call to receive, as you can imagine,” Williams said.
Protected activity is at the center
DHS denies maintaining such a watch list and declined to comment on the couple’s account, according to NPR.
JoAnna Suriani of Protect Democracy, who represents the couple, told the outlet that ICE’s letter suggests agents can preserve records on observers they characterize as interference or safety risks.
Scarlet Kim, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU, said that recording or sharing information about federal agents has been treated by officials as potentially threatening, even though such conduct may be protected by the First Amendment.
Rep. Maxwell Frost, a Florida Democrat, and other Democratic lawmakers had asked DHS what information it collects on protesters.
Frost told NPR he remains concerned that an immigration enforcement agency may keep records connected to Americans exercising constitutional rights.
The free-expression group FIRE has also sued DHS and ICE seeking records on whether protester information is being maintained.
Sources: NPR
