The appearing head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement advised lawmakers that it has purchased and used spy ware made by Paragon Solutions in drug trafficking circumstances, according to a letter seen by TechCrunch.
ICE Performing Director Todd Lyons wrote within the letter to 3 congresspeople that he accepted the company’s prison investigative unit Homeland Safety Investigations (HSI) to make use of “cutting-edge technological instruments” to counter “international terrorist organizations’ thriving exploitation of encrypted communication platforms,” in a reference to spy ware.
Legislation enforcement’s incapacity to entry encrypted knowledge has usually been cited as a justification for his or her want to make use of pc and cellphone spy ware for main prison circumstances, as it may possibly seize an individual’s knowledge straight from their system. Critics and human rights defenders have lengthy pointed to the rising listing of journalists, politicians, and members of civil society whose telephones have been hacked by governments utilizing business spy ware.
Within the letter, Lyons stated ICE’s use of spy ware would “adjust to constitutional necessities,” and that he “licensed that HSI’s operational use of the precise device doesn’t pose important safety or counterintelligence dangers, or important dangers of improper use by a international authorities or international particular person.”
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Bloomberg first reported the ICE’s letter to lawmakers.
In 2024, ICE signed a contract with U.S.-Israeli spy ware maker Paragon Options, a deal that was promptly suspended by the Biden administration to determine whether or not it complied with an executive order that restricts U.S. companies from utilizing spy ware that could possibly be used to focus on Individuals overseas or violate human rights.
In September 2025, ICE lifted the block and reactivated the contract. Till now, nonetheless, it wasn’t clear if ICE had deliberate to make use of Paragon’s spy ware.
The spy ware maker has been ensnared in a wide-ranging scandal in Italy, the place journalists and pro-immigration activists were revealed to have been focused with Paragon’s spy ware Graphite final yr. In response, Paragon minimize off Italy’s intelligence companies from utilizing its spy ware instruments.
When reached for remark, Democrat Rep. Summer season Lee, one of many lawmakers who had requested info from ICE, advised TechCrunch that the company is now transferring ahead “with invasive spy ware know-how inside america.
The lawmaker added, “as an alternative of answering the intense constitutional and civil rights considerations that we raised, DHS is asking the general public to simply accept imprecise assurances and fear-based justifications.”
“The folks most in danger, together with immigrants, Black and brown communities, journalists, organizers, and anybody talking out in opposition to authorities abuse, deserve greater than secrecy and deflection from an company with a protracted document of overreach and abuse,” stated Lee.
Paragon and ICE didn’t reply to a request for remark and questions from TechCrunch concerning the company’s use of spy ware.
