1. United States
2. Mich.
3. Letter

I am writing to demand immediate action to stop the Department of Homeland Security from using administrative subpoenas to surveil Americans who criticize Immigration and Customs Enforcement. This is happening right now, and every day of inaction allows more constitutional violations. According to recent reporting, DHS has issued hundreds of these subpoenas in recent months to major technology companies including Google, Meta, Reddit, and Discord, demanding names, email addresses, telephone numbers, and other identifying data behind social media accounts that track or criticize ICE. The government is using these subpoenas to compel disclosure of personal information even when there is no suspicion that anyone committed a crime, as Greg Nojeim, senior counsel and director of the Security and Surveillance Project at the Center for Democracy & Technology, explained. The chilling effect is already underway. A Philadelphia-area man who emailed DHS criticizing their treatment of an Afghan asylum seeker had his identity subpoenaed from Google. Two weeks later, two DHS agents and a local police officer showed up at his residence for interrogation. He successfully challenged the subpoena on First Amendment grounds between February 3 and February 10, forcing DHS to withdraw it. But most Americans lack the resources to mount such a legal defense, and many will simply stop speaking out rather than risk a knock on their door. The scale of potential surveillance is staggering. Google processes over 16 billion daily searches with roughly 83 to 88 percent of the U.S. search engine market share. Meta has approximately 197 million U.S. Facebook users. These platforms collectively hold data for hundreds of millions of Americans, all of whom are now at risk. This cannot wait for the next legislative session or the next committee meeting. I urge you to publicly condemn this practice today, demand an immediate moratorium on these subpoenas, convene emergency hearings within the next two weeks, and introduce legislation this month to prohibit DHS from using administrative subpoenas to target Americans exercising their First Amendment rights. Our democracy cannot survive when citizens fear retaliation for criticizing their government.