U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is preparing to launch a sweeping expansion of its digital surveillance operations, with plans to hire nearly 30 private contractors to monitor social media activity and gather intelligence for use in arrests and deportations. The ambitious initiative, which surfaced in public documents and was first reported by Wired, signals a major ramp-up in ICE’s efforts to harness open-source data and artificial intelligence in the name of national security and public safety.
According to federal contracting records and planning documents reviewed by multiple outlets, including VTDigger, Latin Times, and MassLive, ICE’s new surveillance program will be headquartered at two primary locations: the National Criminal Analysis and Targeting Center in Williston, Vermont, and a similar intelligence-gathering facility in Santa Ana, California. At these sites, private analysts will work around the clock, scouring public data from platforms such as Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Reddit, and X (formerly Twitter). Their mission? To convert posts, photos, and online messages into actionable leads for ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations division.
The Vermont center, tucked away in an unassuming business park just a short drive from Burlington International Airport, already generates leads for field agents across the eastern United States. The new plan calls for at least a dozen contracted workers in Vermont—including a program manager and ten analysts—while the California hub will employ at least 16, including shift leads and additional analysts. The contractors’ job descriptions are explicit: they must research and analyze data from commercial databases such as LexisNexis Accurint and Thomson Reuters CLEAR, as well as law enforcement systems and publicly accessible social media platforms. Their findings will help ICE locate individuals deemed a threat to national security, public safety, or otherwise prioritized for enforcement.
ICE’s draft plans, published in late September 2025, make clear that past efforts to use social media and open web sources for enforcement have yielded "limited success." The agency argues that integrating these new digital tools is necessary to modernize its approach, stating that "previous approaches ... which have not incorporated open web sources and social media information, have had limited success." By leveraging the vast troves of online information, ICE hopes to identify aliases, track movements, and detect patterns that traditional investigative methods might miss.
Under the proposed framework, contractors will be expected to respond rapidly to new intelligence needs. For urgent national-security threats or suspects on ICE’s Top 10 Most Wanted list, analysts must process cases within 30 minutes. High-priority cases must be turned around within an hour, while lower-priority requests are to be completed the same day or within eight hours, depending on the urgency. Contractors are prohibited from creating fake profiles or storing data outside government servers, and all analysis must be conducted using ICE-approved systems to ensure compliance and data security.
Alongside these human analysts, ICE is seeking to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) tools into its workflow. According to the planning documents, AI will be used to detect suspicious online behavior, monitor posts in real time, and even predict the potential movements of fugitives. The hope is that sophisticated algorithms can accelerate targeting and case development, making the agency’s enforcement efforts both faster and more efficient. As Latin Times notes, this marks a shift toward a "streamlined digital ecosystem" for immigration enforcement, with AI-driven platforms like ImmigrationOS—developed under a nearly $30 million contract with Palantir Technologies—playing a central role.
This tech-forward approach is not ICE’s first foray into controversial surveillance tools. Earlier in 2025, the agency signed a $2 million deal with Paragon Solutions for spyware known as Graphite, which can infiltrate encrypted apps and remotely activate device microphones. Civil-liberties advocates have warned that such software could expose sensitive communications from asylum seekers and immigrant-rights groups, raising serious ethical and legal questions.
ICE’s latest surveillance expansion remains in the Request for Information (RFI) phase, meaning the agency is currently soliciting feedback from potential vendors on the feasibility and logistics of the plan. If all goes according to schedule, work on the project could begin as early as May 2026. In the meantime, ICE continues to operate several other facilities in Vermont, including a Law Enforcement Support Center in Williston that coordinates with other law enforcement agencies and manages a major tip line, as well as a field office in St. Albans for monitoring and detaining individuals under ICE scrutiny.
The agency’s aggressive push into digital surveillance has ignited a firestorm of criticism from privacy and immigrant rights advocates. James Duff Lyall, head of the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont, voiced his concerns in a statement to VTDigger: "Any increase in ICE presence or activity must be scrutinized, given the agency’s long history of abuse, lack of accountability, and disregard for our constitutional rights. That includes its reported expansion of digital surveillance efforts, a project which will be staffed in our own backyard and will involve surveilling the online activity of large swaths of the general public." Others warn that the use of AI in law enforcement could further erode digital privacy rights and increase the risk of misuse, especially given ICE’s prior controversies over facial recognition and data-sharing practices.
As PhoneWorld points out, the debate over digital surveillance is not confined to the United States. Countries like Pakistan, which already operate broad digital monitoring tools with limited transparency, face similar challenges in balancing national security with civil liberties. Experts caution that without robust legal safeguards and independent oversight, such surveillance programs can easily overreach, discouraging free speech and undermining public trust.
Despite the controversy, ICE maintains that these new capabilities are essential for keeping pace with evolving threats and modernizing its enforcement methods. The agency argues that the fusion of open-source intelligence, commercial data, and AI-driven analysis will enable it to respond more quickly and effectively to emerging risks. Whether this approach will deliver on its promises—or simply deepen concerns over government surveillance—remains to be seen.
For now, the spotlight is on Williston, Vermont, and Santa Ana, California, where the next chapter in America’s complex and contentious immigration enforcement story is set to unfold. With the government seeking input from the tech industry and civil society alike, the coming months will be critical in determining how far—and how fast—ICE’s digital surveillance ambitions will go.
In the end, the debate over ICE’s surveillance expansion is about more than just technology. It’s a test of how a nation balances the imperatives of security with the fundamental rights to privacy and due process—an issue that will only grow more urgent as digital tools become ever more powerful and pervasive.
