ICE Sidesteps Sanctuary Laws to Round Up Immigrant Data Through License Plates: Report

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been leveraging vast networks of license plate readers to track and monitor immigrant movements, even in sanctuary jurisdictions that have enacted policies limiting cooperation with federal immigration authorities, according to documents obtained by The Guardian.

"Local agencies across the country use license plate readers, high-speed cameras that scan and capture images and videos of every vehicle that passes, to collect information on vehicular activity, including the direction a vehicle is moving," explains the sprawling report. "They store those details in databases that are often shared with other local law enforcement agencies as well as federal ones."

However, the fact that ICE has access to this data means that federal agents "can obtain information on individual immigrants gathered by local authorities those same agents are legally not allowed to work with."

The Guardian took a deep dive into Westchester County, New York, to exemplify the issue. The county, which has officially limited cooperation with ICE since 2018, maintains a surveillance network of hundreds of cameras that capture images and track vehicle movements. Despite the county's sanctuary policies, ICE, along with other federal agencies including the FBI, Secret Service, and DEA, has been able to access this data, effectively undermining the intent of local law.

Emails show that as of early 2022, ICE agents and other federal personnel had direct access to the database, which stores data from over 20 cities across Westchester. The county's police force alone recorded 16.2 million license plate scans in a single week in January 2023.

Albert Fox Cahn, director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, said to The Guardian that such practices jeopardize the safety of immigrant communities, stating, "Westchester can be a sanctuary county or a surveillance state. It can't be both." Neither ICE nor Westchester County officials responded to requests for comment.

However, as The Guardian explains, the use of license plate-related surveillance goes far beyond Westchester. "In addition to accessing local networks like Westchester's, ICE uses the national database of Vigilant Solutions, a Motorola subsidiary which offers license-plate reading technology that competes with Rekor for contracts with local law enforcement and business across the US. In 2019, documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) revealed 9,000 ICE agents had access to the database of Vigilant Solutions."

Beyond license plate tracking, ICE has also expanded its surveillance of online activity. A report by The Intercept revealed that the agency is seeking private contractors to monitor social media for mentions of ICE operations and leadership.

The proposal suggests ICE wants to track public sentiment and flag "negative references," raising concerns about potential scrutiny of constitutionally protected speech. ICE has previously worked with the contractor Giant Oak for social media monitoring, but the new initiative appears to focus on identifying perceived threats against ICE personnel.