ICE is using a government database to identify people who can easily be deported

Independent

a day ago

ICE agents are reportedly using a new mapping app to track down migrants living illegally in the U.S who can be easily deported to meet Donald Trump's aggressive quotas.
The app, an early version of which was known as Alien Tracker or ATRAC, allows agents and officers to view areas around the country with higher concentrations of people under deportation orders, making them more vulnerable to detention.
Information about more than 700,000 individuals is recorded on the app and is available in a 'baseball-card-style format,' according to documents obtained by The New York Times.
The Times reports that the app was launched with the help of Elon Musk and DOGE, before the billionaire's exit from the department late last month.
According to documents seen by the outlet and accounts from ICE officials in Florida, the app also allows officers to identify immigrants with criminal convictions, further increasing the chances of a swift removal.
'The heat map shows where there are executable final orders of removal around the nation. And that officer then can just zoom in on those areas,' Garrett Ripa, head of the Miami ICE office, told The Times.
To increase its reach, the tracker reportedly draws on data from multiple government agencies, including the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the U.S. Marshals Service, and the Social Security Administration.
The agency reportedly plans for the tracker to ultimately consolidate data from all interior agencies, including housing and labor departments, the Human Services Department and the IRS.
It comes as the administration continues to push forward with its aggressive targets, spearheaded by senior White House advisor Stephen Miller.
Miller, the architect of Trump's anti-immigration agenda, pushed ICE officials to ramp up arrests after falling short of the president's ambitions for record-breaking daily deportations, according to a recent report in The Wall Street Journal.
More than 200,000 people in the U.S. without authorization have been sent back to their home country, according to internal government data obtained by The Times. Miller told Fox News late last month that ICE would set a goal of a 'minimum' of 3,000 arrests a day.
He reportedly asked top ICE officials last month if they believed it was possible to reach one million deportations by the end of the year, according to people with knowledge of the meeting.
To achieve this, he told law enforcement to 'just go out there and arrest illegal aliens,' per the WSJ, adding that he had told agents to target Home Depot parking lots and 7-Eleven convenience stores to find suspects.
It was these instructions that reportedly lit the fuse for the raids in Los Angeles County, which have since devolved into violent clashes between demonstrators and police – and prompted Trump to summon 4,000 members of the state national guard.
Alongside stakeouts of clubs, restaurants and other community hubs, internal administration documents reviewed by The Washington Post instructed ICE agents in more than 20 states to arrest people at courthouses, immediately after their cases are dismissed by a judge, or if they are given orders for their removal.
Following that, immigrants who have been in the country for less than two years are placed into a fast-track removal process, which does not involve a hearing before a judge.
Alongside the internal tactics of the agency, ICE has also sought help from members of the public, with a phone number for people to call and report on potential illegal immigrants.
'When you call our Tip Line, we listen!' the agency wrote in the caption of a video posted to X last month. The somewhat graphic footage showed the arrest of several men outside a home improvement store in Baltimore, Maryland.
For those wanting an end to the hunt and a chance of future return to the U.S., the government has offered yet another solution.
On Monday, the DHS announced on X that any immigrants who self-deported through its 'CBP Home App' would receive 'forgiveness of any failure to depart fines,' as well as cost-free travel and even a $1,000 'exit bonus.'
'By self-deporting, illegal aliens take control of their departure and may preserve the opportunity to come back to the U.S. the right and legal way in the future,' it added.