In a sweeping expansion of federal immigration enforcement, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has dramatically ramped up its surveillance capabilities and information-sharing powers in 2025, sparking fierce debate over privacy, civil liberties, and the future of workplace enforcement. With a record $1.4 billion committed in September to new surveillance technologies—the highest such outlay in 18 years—ICE is now poised to wield an arsenal of high-tech tools and unprecedented access to taxpayer identity data, fundamentally reshaping the landscape of immigration control and the risks faced by both undocumented immigrants and employers.
According to USASpending.gov, ICE’s recent technology purchases span a dizzying array of capabilities. Among the most notable acquisitions is the BI2 Technologies Smartphone Iris Scanning app, a $4.6 million contract for software that can scan an individual’s iris from up to 15 inches away—even through glasses—and instantly compare it to a vast federal database. The agency has also made the largest public purchase to date by any federal entity of Clearview AI’s controversial facial recognition software, paying $3.75 million for a system that has drawn scrutiny for its accuracy and privacy implications, as reported by The Washington Post.
But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. ICE has contracted with Paragon Solutions for $2 million to deploy Graphite spyware, a tool designed to remotely hack smartphones, extract data—even from encrypted apps—and access location information without the owner’s knowledge or consent. In a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Congressional Representatives Summer Lee (Pennsylvania), Shontel Brown (Ohio), and Yassamin Ansari (Arizona) warned, “Graphite can gain unauthorized access to cell phones without the owner’s knowledge or consent, allowing access to encrypted applications, the phone’s location data, as well as messages and photographs stored on it.”
ICE’s new toolkit further includes Penlink’s Tangles and Weblocs Data Systems, which, for another $2 million, will allow the agency to link social media and dark web data to create detailed profiles of individuals. Weblocs, in particular, offers the ability to track cell phone locations—a power that, by law, requires a court order to use. And in a $30 million deal, ICE has tapped Palantir to develop ImmigrationOS, a platform that will track the movements of undocumented immigrants and those who have opted to self-deport.
To operationalize these new capabilities, ICE plans to launch social media monitoring centers in Williston, Vermont, and Santa Ana, California. These centers will surveil a vast array of platforms—including Facebook, X, TikTok, LinkedIn, Reddit, WhatsApp, YouTube, Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram, Flickr, Myspace, and even Google+—in an effort to track and target individuals of interest. While ICE asserts that its main focus remains undocumented immigrants convicted of serious crimes, the agency has also flagged domestic terrorism as a top priority and reserves the right to shift its focus as necessary.
Yet the scope of ICE’s expanded enforcement goes well beyond technology. On April 7, 2025, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and ICE entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that allows ICE to request and receive taxpayer identity information from the IRS for immigration-related enforcement—without the need for a court order. This agreement, detailed by Foley & Lardner LLP, enables ICE to obtain a taxpayer’s last known address when investigating violations of criminal statutes, most notably 8 U.S.C. § 1253(a)(1), which criminalizes willfully remaining in the U.S. more than 90 days after a removal order becomes final.
Under the MOU, ICE must submit a written request to the IRS specifying the individual in question, the relevant taxable periods, the criminal statute being investigated, the date of the final removal order, and a justification for why the information is needed. The IRS reviews these requests for completeness and validity before transmitting the identity information—never full tax returns or employer data—to ICE. The MOU explicitly restricts the use of this information to judicial and administrative proceedings related to the specified criminal investigation, and ICE is required to comply with the IRS’s strict data protection standards.
This new arrangement has not gone unchallenged. Since its adoption, the MOU has faced multiple legal battles, including a high-profile case in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. Advocacy groups, such as those in Centro de Trabajadores Unidos v. Bessent, have argued that the MOU could be used for civil deportations, despite its stated focus on criminal matters. While the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia denied a preliminary injunction—finding that the MOU’s language aligns with the law—93 members of Congress filed an amicus brief warning that such cross-agency data sharing could “erode taxpayer trust, deter voluntary compliance, and blur the lines between tax administration and immigration control.” Oral arguments were heard on October 3, 2025, and a decision is still pending.
Meanwhile, ICE’s sweeping new powers are backed by a massive infusion of resources. The recently passed One Big Beautiful Bill Act allocates $170 billion to immigration enforcement, with over $75 billion earmarked for ICE. This funding signals a significant expansion of ICE’s capacity, extending far beyond the MOU to include audits, site visits, and workplace inspections. For employers, this means heightened risks—not only of criminal enforcement against their companies but also of disruptive workplace sweeps, audits, and administrative requests.
In practice, the MOU could allow ICE to shift from broad, resource-intensive workplace raids to more targeted, neighborhood-level enforcement using home address information derived from tax records. While this may offer some relief from large-scale workplace disruptions, experts caution that ICE is unlikely to abandon large raids altogether, as they remain an efficient enforcement tool. As a result, employers across all sectors are being urged to review their hiring, payroll, and compliance protocols, develop internal enforcement response plans, and closely monitor the outcomes of ongoing legal challenges.
The rapid expansion of ICE’s surveillance and enforcement powers has drawn sharp criticism from civil rights advocates, Democratic lawmakers, and labor unions alike. Last week, the United Auto Workers, Communications Workers of America, and American Federation of Teachers filed a lawsuit against the Departments of State and Homeland Security, alleging “ideological surveillance” of immigrants using artificial intelligence and warning that the government seeks to “punish” dissenting views. Oregon Democratic Senator Ron Wyden told The Washington Post that ICE is still in the process of drafting usage policies for its new technologies and only briefed its staff on these tools in mid-September 2025.
Amid these developments, the White House has defended its approach, with Press Secretary Abigail Jackson stating that left-wing organizations “fueled violent riots, organized attacks against law enforcement officers, coordinated illegal doxxing campaigns, arranged drop points for weapons and riot materials and more.” Former President Donald Trump has also ordered an investigation into Antifa, labeling it a domestic terrorist organization, though the administration has yet to present evidence linking the group to recent violent incidents targeting Trump supporters or federal agencies.
For now, the full impact of ICE’s technological leap and expanded data access remains uncertain. What is clear, however, is that the agency’s new powers have set the stage for a new era of immigration enforcement—one defined by high-tech surveillance, legal controversy, and a fundamental rethinking of privacy and due process in the United States.
