ICE acknowledges it is using powerful spyware

Technology ICE acknowledges it is using powerful spyware April 7, 20265:01 PM ET By  Jude Joffe-Block A man holds his phone up next to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Border Patrol agent during an immigration raid in Chicago on Oct. 4, 2025. The top official of CBP's sister agency, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, confirmed last week that the agency is using powerful spyware that can hack into phones. Octavio Jones/AFP via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Octavio Jones/AFP via Getty Images Immigration and Customs Enforcement is using spyware tools that can intercept encrypted messages as part of the agency's efforts to disrupt fentanyl traffickers, according to a letter sent last week by the agency's acting director, Todd Lyons. Lyons' letter, which was reviewed by NPR, said ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) is using various tools as part of its mission to disrupt and dismantle foreign terrorist organizations "particularly those involved in the trafficking of fentanyl." Immigration Immigration agents have new technology to identify and track people Lyons wrote "in response to the unprecedented lethality of fentanyl and the exploitation of digital platforms by transnational criminal organizations" he approved HSI's "use of cutting-edge technological tools that address the specific challenges posed by the Foreign Terrorist Organizations' thriving exploitation of encrypted communication platforms." His letter, dated April 1, was a belated response to an October inquiry from three Democratic members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform expressing concern about the agency's potential use of the spyware Graphite, which was created by an Israeli company, Paragon Solutions. Sponsor Message The letter is the first time ICE has indicated it is using Graphite. The agency initially signed a $2 million contract with Paragon Solutions for an unspecified software product at the end of the Biden administration. But the con...