Investigate ICE's Misuse of Internal Watchdog to Silence Critics

Demand a full investigation into ICE's Office of Professional Responsibility for weaponizing a federal watchdog agency against Americans exercising their First Amendment rights. OPR — designed to oversee ICE's own conduct — is now being used to surveil, intimidate, and unmask civilians who criticize the agency online. That is a corruption of its mandate and a direct attack on free speech. The facts are damning. ICE agents showed up at a polling site in Syracuse to pressure a poll worker into removing an Instagram post. OPR issued administrative subpoenas to tech companies demanding names, addresses, and phone numbers of online critics — then withdrew them rather than defend them in court. Between January 2025 and March 2026, OPR opened 131 investigations into alleged "doxing," yet only one resulted in a DOJ prosecution. Meanwhile, OPR published just 102 detention facility inspection reports in 2025, down from 192 two years prior. The office is neglecting its actual job to run a surveillance operation targeting dissent. Todd Lyons signed a memo expanding OPR's mission to police "emerging threats" online — and then omitted this entire program from his written testimony to the House Appropriations Committee. That omission alone warrants scrutiny. Congress needs to subpoena OPR's records, demand a full accounting of every investigation opened against civilians, and cut off any funding being used for this surveillance. The administration is trying to make Americans afraid to speak. Don't let it.