• by Wendy Davis , Yesterday

Two Democratic senators are demanding answers from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security about its moves regarding "surveillance technology" -- including its recent publication of a request for information about ad tech providers.

"It is important that your office shine light on activities that undergird ICE’s enforcement actions including a muddled patchwork of technology procurements that have significantly expanded DHS’ ability to collect, retain, and analyze information about Americans," Virginia Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine said in a letter sent Thursday to DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari.

"DHS law enforcement agencies have moved to amass potentially sensitive personal data with the unprecedented $165 billion DHS was allocated during last year’s partisan reconciliation process," the lawmakers add.

They cite several examples, including Immigrations and Custom Enforcement's recent request for information about how "Big Data and ad tech providers" could support investigations activities.

ICE said in that request, published late last week in the Federal Register, that it aims "to understand the current state of Ad Tech compliant and location data services available to federal investigative and operational entities, considering regulatory constraints and privacy expectations of support investigations activities."

The lawmakers also referenced other moves by Homeland Security -- including its October 2025 request for information "to hire 30 social media surveillance contractors to collect information from social media and commercial databases and build profiles on individuals" for its enforcement and removals division.

Additionally, they note that the agency entered into a contract with facial recognition company Clearview AI.

The letter comes the same month as the federal government's controversial "Operation Metro Surge" immigration enforcement effort in Minneapolis. That initiative has resulted in detentions of thousands of people -- including young children as well as U.S. citizens -- and injuries to civillians. Earlier this month, agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis -- Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Agents in the city also shot a third person in the leg, and used a "flash bang" grenade and teargas on a family -- including a 6-month-old.

"We are horrified by the videos and reports of masked federal law enforcement officers seizing mothers from their vehicles while dropping their kids off at school, gassing children in their neighborhoods, demanding proof of citizenship based on an individual’s appearance, threatening peaceful protesters, and the broad dragnet operations arresting, injuring, and traumatizing entire communities," the senators write.

"We are deeply concerned that ICE’s surge in brutality against American communities is being facilitated by the inappropriate and unsupervised use of surveillance technology," they add.

They are requesting an investigation into Homeland Security's methods for collecting and analyzing data, and seek answers to a host of specific questions -- including whether U.S. citizens have been detailed based on biometric data, and whether the agency has (or previously had) "information sharing agreements" with social media companies.