1. United States
2. Ill.
3. Letter

I am writing to urge you to redirect investigative resources toward unmasking anonymous bot accounts that amplify support for aggressive immigration enforcement, rather than targeting community members who share information about ICE operations. While the Department of Homeland Security has issued hundreds of administrative subpoenas to companies including Google, Meta, Reddit, and Discord to unmask critics of ICE, there has been no comparable effort to expose the coordinated inauthentic accounts that manufacture consent for these policies. Bot networks and fake accounts pose a genuine threat to our democracy by creating the illusion of widespread public support for controversial government actions. These automated accounts distort public discourse, manipulate elected officials' perception of constituent sentiment, and deepen divisions in our communities. When policymakers believe there is broad support for aggressive enforcement tactics, they may pursue policies that do not reflect the actual views of their constituents. The contrast is striking. According to the New York Times, DHS uses administrative subpoenas requiring no judicial approval to identify real people posting bilingual community alerts, like the Montco Community Watch pages in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, the coordinated bot campaigns that praise ICE raids and attack immigrant communities operate with impunity. Steve Loney, a senior supervising attorney with the ACLU of Pennsylvania, observed that the government is "taking more liberties than they used to" in targeting critics, yet shows no interest in investigating artificial amplification of pro-enforcement messaging. White House border czar Tom Homan has stated publicly that the administration intends to "make sure everyone knows" the identities of people who question immigration enforcement, promising to "broadcast every one of these people we arrest." This same transparency should apply to the inauthentic accounts shaping public opinion in favor of these policies. I urge you to call for investigations into bot networks supporting aggressive immigration enforcement and to demand the same level of scrutiny for artificial pro-government accounts that DHS currently applies to ordinary citizens exercising their First Amendment rights.