ICE Seeks 24/7 Social Media Surveillance Team
▼ Summary
– US immigration authorities plan to hire nearly 30 contractors to expand social media surveillance for deportation enforcement.
– Private analysts will monitor platforms like Facebook and TikTok from ICE targeting centers in Vermont and California.
– The program is in early planning stages but aims for 24/7 contractor staffing with advanced surveillance software.
– Two ICE targeting centers—in Williston, Vermont and Santa Ana, California—will lead this intelligence-gathering effort.
– Contractors will research individuals online and create dossiers to support arrest operations by field offices.
The United States is preparing for a significant expansion of its digital monitoring capabilities, with immigration officials planning to assemble a dedicated team to scan social media platforms around the clock. This initiative involves hiring close to 30 private contractors who will analyze posts, images, and private messages, turning this raw online data into actionable intelligence used to support deportation arrests and enforcement operations.
According to federal contracting records, the agency is actively searching for private companies to manage a multi-year surveillance program. This operation will be based out of two specialized targeting centers run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The plan calls for placing these nearly 30 contracted analysts inside ICE facilities located in Vermont and Southern California. Their primary responsibility will be to scrutinize content on major platforms like Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, meticulously reviewing user profiles and public posts to generate new leads for enforcement teams conducting raids.
Currently, the project is in a preliminary phase where the agency is assessing contractor interest before moving to a formal bidding process. However, internal planning documents reveal the program’s extensive scope. ICE is looking for a contractor that can provide continuous, 24/7 staffing for these centers. The personnel must be capable of processing cases under demanding deadlines and supplying the agency with advanced, subscription-based surveillance software tools.
The core of this operation revolves around two of ICE’s three targeting centers, which are fundamentally responsible for generating the intelligence that fuels the agency’s enforcement actions. The National Criminal Analysis and Targeting Center in Williston, Vermont, manages cases across the eastern United States. Its counterpart, the Pacific Enforcement Response Center in Santa Ana, California, covers the western region and is specifically designed to function nonstop, every day of the year.
Internal documents outline that each location will be staffed with a combination of senior analysts, shift supervisors, and general researchers. The Vermont site is slated to have a team of about a dozen contractors, which includes a program manager and ten analysts. The California facility will host a larger, continuously operating watch floor with a staff of sixteen. The Santa Ana center will maintain a minimum staffing level at all times, ensuring that at least one senior analyst and three researchers are always on duty.
Collectively, these contractor teams will act as an intelligence-gathering extension of ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations division. They will be tasked with receiving tips and new case assignments, conducting in-depth online investigations of individuals, and compiling their findings into comprehensive dossiers. These intelligence packages are then intended for use by field offices to coordinate and execute arrests.
(Source: Wired)
