Federal contracting records collected and reviewed by Wired revealed that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is preparing to expand its monitoring of social media platforms nationwide. The agency intends to establish a continuous surveillance program staffed by analysts who will examine online activity around the clock.
The analysis of the documents, which were obtained under a request for information, indicated that exactly 30 contracted personnel would be assigned to two facilities. One center is the National Criminal Analysis and Targeting Center in Williston, Vermont, and the other is the Pacific Enforcement Response Center in Santa Ana, California.
Note that the Vermont location is specifically expected to host 12 staff members, including one dedicated program manager and 10 researchers, while the California branch would maintain 16 staff to ensure uninterrupted coverage. Each shift would include a senior analyst and several researchers trained in open source intelligence gathering.
Contract documents indicate that analysts would monitor platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, and YouTube, as well as foreign sites like VKontakte. They would also draw information from commercial databases, including LexisNexis Accurint and Thomson Reuters Clear, to link addresses, vehicle records, and financial data.
The agency expects analysts to respond to sensitive leads with strict turnaround goals. For example, urgent cases, including individuals connected to national security investigations or fugitives, must be addressed within 30 minutes. High-priority requests require resolution within one hour, and other matters must be handled the same day.
Proposal documents also revealed that analysts may suggest software enhancements and automated processes to improve efficiency. More than 1 million U.S. dollars per year has been set aside to procure surveillance tools and maintain licenses. The agency plans to integrate data into systems developed by Palantir Technologies for analysis.
It is also worth mentioning that past contracts signed by the agency show reliance on tools such as ShadowDragon SocialNet for mapping social relationships by collecting data from hundreds of platforms. Other agreements involved Babel Street for location data, LexisNexis for records, and Clearview AI for facial recognition using images from the internet.
Civil liberties groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Privacy Information Center have warned that the collection of social media content and data may violate constitutional protections. They argue that the expansion of monitoring risks suppressing dissent and gathering material unrelated to immigration enforcement.
The Brennan Center for Justice earlier reported that the second Trump administration has expanded its ideological vetting to include not only travelers, visa applicants, and visa holders, but also U.S. citizen contacts. It has also been reported that the government is collecting data on millions of both Americans and immigrants via a centralized inter-agency sharing.
FURTHER READINGS AND REFERENCES
- Cameron, D. 3 October 2025. “ICE Wants to Build Out a 24/7 Social Media Surveillance Team.” Wired. Available online
- Gallo, C. 2 June 2025. “The Trump Admin is Compiling Millions of Data on Americans.” Profolus. Available online
- Heintz, P. 6 October 2025. “ICE to Expand Social Media Surveillance at Under-the-Radar Hub in Vermont.” Boston Globe. Available online
- Levinson-Waldman, R. and Balkam, N. 21 July 2025. “The Government’s Growing Trove of Social Media Data.” Brennan Center for Justice. Available online