New Yorkers’ Social Media Will Be Monitored By Feds

ICE agents are targeting New Yorkers' social media accounts. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents with the Department of Homeland Security will have their eyes on New York residents' online accounts, such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, Bitly, and others.

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Ice Agents Have New Quotas In New York

Now that Trump has ramped up deportation efforts, reports say that Immigration and Customs Enforcement have been given quotas. The new quotas will increase arrests in the New York City area. There are 25 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement field offices around America, including New York City. The White House request requires ICE agents in each office to make 75 daily enforcement arrests. Obviously, with ramped-up activity, there are many people criticizing ICE, especially on social media.

ICE plans to monitor New Yorkers and American citizens online. According to The Independent, ICE will track people who speak negatively about ICE and anyone who makes a potential threat against the agency or an agent. On Sam.gov, ICE posted a request looking for a company to provide "Threat Risk & Monitoring Services." The SAM.gov of the System for Award Management is an e-procurement system used by the federal government.

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In the Statement of Objectives attached to the request for services, ICE requests that the business it chooses to do the social media monitoring provide daily reports. In addition to general sentiments about ICE and possible disruptions of ICE's plans, any senior leaders, employees, or facilities that have been repeatedly targeted will be included in these reports.

The company will provide ICE with information about New Yorkers and other Americans or foreign nationals - including screenshots and real and online identities of the individual(s) making the threats. Tools such as facial recognition and geolocators will be used to search the Internet and identify the social media user(s).

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ICE demands that information about the person it deems as a threat such as full legal name and any aliases, date of birth, Social Security, address, employment, phone number, email, family members, etc.

There is no clear definition of what ICE considers a threat or disruption, which leaves a lot open to the interpretation of ICE. There is the potential for the Trump administration to loosely use the term "threat" and monitor people who simply disagree with Trump and ICE's deportation policies.

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