1. United States
2. Fla.
3. Letter

After receiving $170 billion in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the Department of Homeland Security went on a shopping spree. One result has been an expanding arsenal of surveillance tools that it is now deploying in interior immigration enforcement, often against American citizens — a dangerous development that threatens some of our most hallowed constitutional rights. One of the most visible examples of these tools is mobile facial recognition, which is playing a growing part in the administration’s expansive sweeps of immigrants in American cities. Again, this is being used on immigrants and US citizens alike. DHS also has contracts with mobile cell-site simulators, which pose as cell towers and can collect location data from all mobile devices within an 8-block radius, and license plate readers, which track the movements of every license plate on the road. They also reactivated a partnership with Paragon Solutions, an Israeli hacking company with tools that can extract data from phones even if they are locked or communication is over encrypted apps, after the Biden administration had suspended the contract over reports of misuse by foreign governments. Since the first Trump administration, DHS has also relied on private data brokers to buy vast databases of consumer location information. In the six months leading up to the surge in Minneapolis, Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s data storage needs reportedly tripled. It’s unclear how much of this activity aligns with the Fourth Amendment or Supreme Court precedents requiring law enforcement agencies to get a warrant before accessing the contents of a cell phone or mobile location data. To be sure, enforcing immigration law is a legitimate government function. But building a domestic surveillance dragnet is not. Steps Congress must take - First, we demand transparency. Congress should require DHS to disclose what data it collects during interior enforcement, including information on U.S. citizens and legal residents, how long that data is stored, and how it’s protected. At a minimum, the department should be required to explain how it evaluates the safety, reliability and constitutionality of any technology it deploys. Second, Congress should close loopholes that allow DHS to circumvent the Fourth Amendment. It should prohibit DHS’s ability to purchase data from third parties when it cannot, or does not want to, obtain a warrant. Deputizing data brokers to collect information on Americans undermines our most fundamental rights. So does placing fake cell site towers to track people’s locations rather than using proper legal processes. Third, Congress should prohibit the use of appropriated funds for surveillance technologies that target or incidentally sweep up U.S. citizens. Recent remarks from White House border czar Tom Homan suggesting DHS was building a database of protesters should disturb all lawmakers. Congress must not allow tax dollars to be used to violate Americans’ rights. Until DHS can guarantee that these surveillance tools are narrowly used and constitutionally sound, funding for them should be frozen. Technological capability is expanding faster than oversight. Right now, Congress faces a choice - Allow DHS to continue broadening its digital reach with limited transparency and few constraints, or reaffirm that constitutional guardrails still apply in the age of facial recognition and bulk data collection. Immigration enforcement should not require sacrificing the privacy of the citizens it is meant to protect.