ICE wants to build a 24/7 social media surveillance team

"Together, these teams would operate as intelligence arms of ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations division. They will receive tips and incoming cases, research individuals online, and package the results into dossiers that could be used by field offices to plan arrests. The scope of information contractors are expected to collect is broad. Draft instructions specify open-source intelligence: public posts, photos, and messages on platforms from Facebook to Reddit to TikTok."

"They would also be armed with powerful commercial databases such as LexisNexis Accurint and Thomson Reuters CLEAR, which knit together property records, phone bills, utilities, vehicle registrations, and other personal details into searchable files. The plan calls for strict turnaround times. Urgent cases, such as suspected national security threats or people on ICE's Top Ten Most Wanted list, must be researched within 30 minutes. High-priority cases get one hour; lower-priority leads must be completed within the workday."

Teams will operate as intelligence arms of ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations division, receiving tips, researching individuals online, and packaging dossiers for field offices to plan arrests. Contractors will collect broad open-source intelligence from public posts, photos, and messages on platforms like Facebook, Reddit, TikTok, and VKontakte. Analysts will also use commercial databases such as LexisNexis Accurint and Thomson Reuters CLEAR that combine property, phone, utility, and vehicle records into searchable files. The plan enforces strict deadlines—urgent cases within 30 minutes, high-priority within an hour, lower-priority within the workday—sets performance targets, seeks AI integration, and allocates over a million dollars annually for surveillance tools. Earlier plans included automatic social-media scanning for 'negative sentiment' and flagging users for 'proclivity for violence.'

Read at Ars Technica