Brennan Center Warns ICE Is Preparing to Target U.S. Dissenters, Not Just Immigrants
The Brennan Center for Justice (BCJ) published a new expert brief on November 21, 2025 warning that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) — long associated with deportation — may soon be used to surveil and crack down on protesters, critics, and political dissenters.
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According to the report, ICE has recently signed contracts worth tens of millions of dollars for advanced surveillance tools: social-media monitoring software, cellphone location trackers, facial recognition systems, remote hacking tools, and other “spy technology.” These tools have historically been used to identify immigrants for deportation — but BCJ argues they are now being openly repurposed to monitor Americans for political activism.
What’s different this time: BCJ says federal officials and administration policy statements make no effort to hide the new mission. Under a recent national-security directive from the White House — NSPM‑7 — “domestic terrorism” is being broadly defined to include not only violent extremists but also protesters, anti-immigration activists, and groups critical of government policy.
In practice, that could mean ICE may begin targeting lawful political speech and protest — actions clearly protected under the First Amendment. Civil-liberties groups warn that casting dissent as a “threat” gives the government dangerous leeway to surveil, disrupt, or even prosecute lawful activists.
This shift matters for more than undocumented immigrants. It signals a potential redefinition of ICE from a deportation agency into a domestic political-security force — with far-reaching consequences for privacy, free-speech rights, and what it means to protest in America.