Welcome back to This Week on ICE.
This week, we’re looking into how powerful surveillance tools are being used on both sides of the border in ways that raise serious questions about privacy and oversight. Then, we’re getting into how and where the U.S. is deporting people (if you’re keeping score — it’s as many as 64 countries and counting), including legally ambiguous arrangements with countries far from migrants’ original homes. And finally, we’ll look at what these shifts mean for people caught inside detention centers with special guest and LA-based crime and public safety journalist Ryanne Mena.
We’re so glad you’re here. Let’s get started.
The top line: A new ICE surveillance tool has (literally) entered the chat. Plus, an AI-driven surveillance arrangement between Texas and Mexico.
Many of us thought we’d be safe from hacking so long as we avoided clicking on strange links or downloading sketchy files. But through a cascade of investments in data and specialized tools from private companies over the last year or so, the Department of Homeland Security has managed to circumvent the need for a warrant to hack into private citizen’s devices. Sounds illegal, right? Most advocates and lawmakers would agree with you. And yet, the plot thickens:
This week, ICE admitted to using a “zero click” spyware tool that can intercept encrypted messages on apps like WhatsApp. ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons says the investment is part of the agency’s efforts to track fentanyl traffickers, but privacy wonks say the tool in question, Graphite, has a troubling history.
“In 2025, WhatsApp disclosed that it discovered 90 journalists and humanitarian workers were targeted using Graphite. To this day, we don’t know who hacked these 90 people. Because of that, Italy basically stopped a contract with Graphite’s parent company, Paragon, which is an Israeli spyware company.” — Kelly
Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons maintains these surveillance efforts are intended to disrupt fentanyl traffickers, but rights experts say the tech “should require the strongest judicial oversight” to prevent DHS “from abusing Constitutional and human rights in the process,” per NPR.
Meanwhile, Mexico has ramped up its surveillance of its own citizens, and has agreed to share reams of AI-driven surveillance data with Texas.
“Juárez is now the linchpin of a $1.27 billion surveillance empire.” — Kelly
A private company called Grupo Segurtech is almost done building a 20-floor AI surveillance tower, Torre Centinela, in Juárez — a city notorious for rampant cartel violence and femicide. The mega-company has invested in surveillance across Mexico and Latin America, but Juárez is of particular concern, given its close proximity to El Paso, Texas, just across the border.
Under a 2022 memorandum between Texas and Chihuahua state, Mexican authorities will share vast amounts of surveillance data collected from Torre Centinela once it’s complete. Advocates fear could be turned against migrants in ways that are impossible to predict or control.
Also on our radar: African countries are receiving their first “third-country” deportees from the U.S. — under shaky legal precedent.
On Monday the Democratic Republic of Congo confirmed it would receive deportees from the United States even if they are from nowhere near central Africa. Neighboring Uganda already received a flight of a dozen deportees, and nations across Africa and Asia are set to follow suit.
“Are these actions legal?” — Kelly
“It’s a legal gray area. … Let’s say that I got into the United States from Mexico. They might send me back to Mexico. Let’s say I came in a different way. They might look for a third country that could then host [me], but it is supposed to be a place that is safe, that has high standards of detention, that respects human rights.
What the Trump administration is doing is looking at countries like Uganda, Rwanda, [and leaning on their history of hosting refugees as a model for how they would potentially treat deportees. But there’s not guarantee that these deportees will have due process once they leave the U.S., nor is there a guarantee they will be treated well in these third-country detention centers.]
How is this person who’s been deported to Rwanda, for example, supposed to contact a lawyer in the United States, file a lawsuit, attempt to [return to the United States]? It is a huge hurdle to get back in.” — Matt
Interview Exclusive: The Mexican government has launched an unprecedented investigation into deaths at Adelanto ICE Processing Center in Los Angeles. Journalist Ryanne Mena tells us what she’s tracking.
Ryanne Mena, an award-winning journalist based in Los Angeles who covers crime and public safety, opened up her reporter’s notebook to decode one of California’s largest immigration detention facilities. Here’s what she told us:
“I’ve been speaking to dozens of people detained inside the Adelanto ICE facility. Their biggest issue that they talk about is medical care — or a lack thereof.
They tell me that it takes weeks to get an appointment after they put a medical request in. When they do see medical staff on site, they’re often just given painkillers that don’t actually help the ailment that they went to go seek care for. They also detail unsanitary conditions. Last week, I spoke to someone detained inside the Adelanto West facility. … [They] told me that there were flies in the shower walls. … Inadequate food and water is also an issue that dozens of people have told me about. The food that they’re served is often just soy, and the vegetables that they’re served aren’t fresh, and sometimes it’s food that’s been spoiled. People go hungry and portions aren’t big enough. They tell me that the water has a funny smell to it, and that they’re concerned about the kind of water that they’re ingesting.” — Ryanne
Meanwhile, the Mexican government has initiated a cascade of diplomatic and legal measures against Adelanto, including filing an amicus brief in support of a federal class-action lawsuit against the ICE processing center and taking the case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
“It is very significant that Mexico is getting involved in this federal lawsuit. I’ve been following Adelanto since 2018, and this is the first time I’ve heard of a foreign nation becoming involved in [a lawsuit having] to do with the conditions of an American immigration detention center. I will be closely following what comes next with this federal lawsuit and what other actions Mexico may take.” — Ryanne
On Your Way Out:
ICE has arrested at least 800 people based on tips from the TSA, according to an exclusive report from Reuters. That figure is much higher than previously known, and includes arrests made before the deployment of ICE agents to airports.
Tuan Van Bui, a 55-year old migrant from Vietnam became the 46th person to die at an ICE facility under the Trump administration. His cause of death is currently unclear, and being investigated. Court records show that Bui had filed a habeas corpus petition challenging his detention in February, but died before a hearing was held.
And finally, courts across the country dealt the Trump administration a series of blows last week: A federal judge in California allowed a class-action lawsuit from asylum seekers who had made appointments via the CBP One App – only to have them suddenly cancelled by the Trump administration last year.
Similarly, a federal judge in Boston ruled that the the administration’s termination of status for up to 900,000 people who used CBP One to legally enter the country was unlawful and those remaining in the country must have their status reinstated.
Another Federal judge also threw out a DOJ lawsuit against the city of Denver and state of Colorado for their so-called sanctuary laws.
That’s all for now. Keep sending us your questions, comments and thoughts to thisweekonice@gmail.com. Thanks for being here, and catch you next time!
— Kelly and Matt
