American Dragnet: Data-Driven Deportation in the 21st Century
ICE has built a sweeping surveillance dragnet—giving them the ability to track nearly every person in the U.S., seemingly at any time.
In 2022, we published American Dragnet: Data-Driven Deportation in the 21st Century, our investigation into the sweeping surveillance powers of the U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE). Just three years later, as authoritarianism takes hold in the U.S., the Trump administration is using the digital surveillance apparatus the report describes to target immigrants, activists and anyone else who challenges his agenda. In May 2025, we re-released the report with a new foreword reflecting on the meaning of our original findings in the current political context.
Download full report with May 2025 foreword (PDF): American Dragnet: Data-Driven Deportation in the 21st Century
Descargue el informe completo con el prólogo de mayo 2025 (PDF): Redes de Arrastre Americanas: Deportaciones Accionadas por Datos en el Siglo XXI
After two years of filing hundreds of public records requests and reviewing 13 years of procurement contracts, we found that ICE surveillance is much broader than most people realize.
■ ICE has scanned the driver’s license photos of 1 in 3 adults.
■ ICE has access to the driver’s license data of 3 in 4 adults.
■ ICE tracks the movements of drivers in cities home to 3 in 4 adults.
■ ICE could locate 3 in 4 adults through their utility records.
We also learned how ICE has built its digital surveillance arsenal: by accessing datasets containing detailed personal records on the vast majority of people in the United States, often without any judicial, legislative, or public oversight. Anyone’s information can end up in the hands of immigration enforcement simply by applying for a driver’s license; driving on the roads; or signing up with their local utilities to get access to heat, water and electricity.
In addition to quantifying the reach and expansion of ICE surveillance, the report calls upon Congress to investigate and conduct oversight into ICE surveillance, and it offers state and local communities a set of concrete suggestions for dismantling this surveillance dragnet.
Public Records Documents
The public records responses we received and other primary source material we referenced during our research are available here.