ICE Agents Followed Legal Observers Home. Then Told Them They're 'Domestic Terrorists.'

Federal agents used facial recognition and data brokers to identify people lawfully watching immigration raids, then showed up at their houses. Two federal lawsuits say it's unconstitutional retaliation.

State of Surveillance Editorial Team

A lone streetlight illuminating a dark empty residential street at night
Photo via Unsplash

TL;DR: Federal immigration agents in Minnesota and Maine have been using facial recognition apps, license plate readers, and commercial data brokers to identify legal observers, people lawfully documenting ICE operations from public spaces. Then they followed them home. Agents blocked driveways, shouted observers' addresses at them, photographed their houses, and in one case tried to force a Marine veteran off the road. One agent told a Portland social worker: "We have a nice little database. And now you're considered a domestic terrorist." Two federal lawsuits (one from the ACLU, one from Protect Democracy) allege this is unconstitutional retaliation for protected First Amendment activity. DHS says no policies were violated.

"They Know Where You Live"

Matt Little is a former Minnesota state senator. In January 2026, he was doing something perfectly legal: driving behind ICE agents in a Dakota County neighborhood to document their operations during what DHS called "Operation Metro Surge" [1].

Then the agents turned down a rural road. Little followed. Pretty quickly, he realized where they were headed: his house.

Two SUVs were already parked in his driveway when he pulled up. Agents moved to block his car. They claimed he had impeded their investigation [1].

"The intent was clearly to intimidate us," Little told The Intercept. "It's stressful. It's a little bit scary."

Little wasn't alone. Across the Twin Cities, legal observers reported the same pattern during January and February 2026:

  • Emily Beltz (Edina): An ICE agent leaned out of an SUV and shouted her name and home address in what she described as a "mocking tone," adding: "We're going to take you home" [1]
  • Katherine Henly (Minneapolis): Agents stopped on her block and photographed her home. "This seemed like a clear attempt to intimidate me and my family," she said [1]
  • Beth Jackson (St. Paul): A grandmother and volunteer observer whose family now begs her to stop. "Family members don't want me to come up there because they're afraid I'm going to bring ICE up there," she said [1]
  • Ed Higgins (Columbia Heights): A Marine Corps veteran pursued through the city by federal agents who "tried to force him off the road." Officers surrounded his vehicle and struck his windows with firearms. "I was panicking the whole way," Higgins said. "I thought they were going to kill me" [1]

Every one of these people was exercising a constitutionally protected right: observing government agents conducting operations in public.

How They Found Them

The observers didn't hand ICE their names and addresses. The agents pulled that information from a surveillance toolkit that would make most people's skin crawl [1][2][3]:

  • Mobile Fortify: A smartphone app ICE and CBP have been using since May 2025. Take a photo of someone's face, and it searches 200 million images across government databases. Returns name, birthdate, nationality, immigration history. As of January 2026, agents had used it in the field more than 100,000 times [2][3]
  • Automated License Plate Readers: ICE paid Thomson Reuters $5 million for a subscription that lets agents look up license plate data and track vehicle movements [2]
  • Commercial Data Brokers: Phone numbers, addresses, associates, social media accounts, voter registration. ICE can locate three out of four American adults through utility records alone. They've scanned one in three Americans' driver's license photos [2]
  • Mobile Companion: A Motorola Solutions app deployed since November 2025 that ties license plate sightings to travel patterns and data broker profiles [2]
  • "Agitator Chat": An internal Microsoft Teams database agents used to track specific individuals they deemed problematic [1]

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison warned about this in January 2026. He issued a consumer alert telling residents that ICE was using data brokers to track people through online activity, phone apps, smart devices, and vehicles [4]. He wasn't guessing. He was describing a system that was already running.

"Now You're Considered a Domestic Terrorist"

In Portland, Maine, social worker Colleen Fagan recorded ICE agents photographing her face and license plate while she observed an operation. One agent didn't bother being subtle about what came next [5][6]:

"Cause we have a nice little database. And now you're considered a domestic terrorist."

Another observer in Maine, Elinor Hilton, was warned about being placed on a "domestic terrorist watchlist" if she kept showing up [5].

DHS later stated there is "NO database of 'domestic terrorists' run by DHS" [5]. But DHS has also classified videotaping and posting photos of ICE agents as "doxing," which they define as domestic terrorism [1]. So either the agent was lying, or DHS's definition of domestic terrorism is elastic enough to catch anyone with a phone camera.

Either way, the message landed. When a federal agent with a gun tells you you're on a domestic terrorist list, the legal distinction between real and implied databases doesn't matter much.

Two Lawsuits, Same Story

Two separate federal lawsuits are now challenging these tactics:

Tincher v. Noem (ACLU, Minnesota)

Filed by the ACLU on behalf of Twin Cities residents who say they were unlawfully targeted while monitoring immigration enforcement [1]. The suit alleges:

  • First Amendment violations: retaliation for lawful observation and protest
  • Fourth Amendment violations: unreasonable searches through biometric surveillance
  • More than 30 people gave sworn statements about ICE encounters in Minnesota

Protect Democracy Suit (Maine)

Filed on February 23, 2026 in federal district court in Maine by Protect Democracy, Dunn Isaacson Rhee, and Drummond Woodsum [5]. The suit demands:

  • DHS stop collecting records on observers
  • Expungement of files gathered through protected First Amendment activity
  • An end to the use of "domestic terrorist" labels against lawful observers

Both suits rest on a simple legal question: does the government's conduct deter ordinary people from exercising their First Amendment rights? Look at Beth Jackson's family telling her to stop. Look at observers who now refuse to go out alone. The chilling effect isn't theoretical. It's measured in people who stopped showing up.

It's Not Just Observers

The surveillance infrastructure targeting legal observers is the same one ICE uses on everyone else. And it's expanding [2]:

  • ICE sent administrative subpoenas to Google and Meta to unmask anonymous social media accounts critical of immigration enforcement, with no judge and no grand jury required [2]
  • HHS shared Medicaid data (names, dates of birth, addresses of undocumented immigrants) with ICE [2]
  • The IRS handed over addresses for 42,000+ people before a federal judge found the agency violated tax law [2]
  • ICE's ELITE app (built by Palantir) was described by one agent as "like Google Maps showing deportable people" [2]
  • Over 70 Democratic Congressional members sent a letter requesting investigation into warrantless location data purchases [2]

Sherman Austin, who runs the @stopicenet account in Long Beach, received a notification from Meta that DHS had subpoenaed his account information after he posted about ICE agents. DHS cited "Officer Safety/Doxing." Austin fought the subpoena in court and won [2]. Most people don't have that option.

What DHS Says

DHS's official response follows a pattern: deny the label, justify the action [5][6].

A spokesperson stated: "No policies have been violated." They also noted that "obstructing and assaulting law enforcement is a felony" [1], a statement that conflates documenting operations with obstructing them.

DHS insists there's no domestic terrorist database. But agents on the ground are telling people they're in one. Either DHS can't control its agents or it's giving them permission to lie. Neither answer is reassuring.

What You Can Do

  • Know your rights. Observing, recording, and photographing government officials performing their duties in public is protected by the First Amendment. You don't need permission. You don't need to identify yourself (in most states)
  • If you observe ICE operations, the ACLU recommends: keep a safe distance, don't physically interfere, record everything, go with a group, and tell someone where you'll be [7]
  • Limit your data footprint. ICE pulls observer identities from license plate readers, data brokers, and facial recognition. Use a privacy-focused browser. Opt out of data broker sites. Check our guides section for specifics
  • Contact your representatives. Ask them to support the Surveillance Accountability Act, which would require warrants for biometric surveillance tools like Mobile Fortify
  • Support the lawsuits. The ACLU and Protect Democracy are fighting this in court right now

References

  1. The Intercept: "Federal Agents Are Intimidating Legal Observers at Their Homes: 'They Know Where You Live'" (March 5, 2026)
  2. NPR: "ICE has spun a massive surveillance web. We talked to people caught in it" (March 4, 2026)
  3. MPR News: "ICE using private data to intimidate observers and activists, advocates say" (January 13, 2026)
  4. State of Surveillance: "Minnesota AG Warns: ICE Is Tracking You Through Data Brokers" (January 2026)
  5. NPR: "A new lawsuit alleges DHS illegally tracked and intimidated observers" (February 23, 2026)
  6. The Register: "Americans sue Homeland Security over 'illegal' surveillance" (February 23, 2026)
  7. ACLU: Know Your Rights: Immigrants' Rights

Published: April 25, 2026