A group of more than a dozen Democratic lawmakers have demanded the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) provide its definition of “domestic terrorist,” after the agency labelled U.S. citizens Renée Good and Alex Pretti, which DHS officers killed, as such. The move also comes as DHS and its various components purchase and deploy a wide range of surveillance technologies and demand sensitive information from tech companies to unmask people criticizing ICE.
“You and your underlings appear to be labeling untold numbers of people as ‘domestic terrorists’ or individuals of concern at will without evidence, operating wildly invasive spy tools to identify targets—and then using such labels as an excuse for yet more surveillance,” the letter, addressed to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, reads. The office of Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS), ranking member of the Committee on Homeland Security, shared a copy of the letter with 404 Media.
“This self-reinforcing spiral of civil liberties violations ratchets in only one direction: toward an authoritarian surveillance state that punishes dissent and inflicts state violence,” the letter adds.
It then points to a long list of media reports, including 404 Media’s, about DHS’s increasing use of surveillance technologies and powers. Those include how DHS shared a memo with employees in Minneapolis telling them to capture images, license plates, and other information about protestors “so we can capture it all in one consolidated form”; 404 Media’s revelation that Palantir is working on a tool called ELITE for ICE that provides a confidence score on targets’ addresses; ICE’s purchase of smartphone location data; how ICE agents told legal observers they were identifying them with facial recognition technology; and several more examples.
“The Department’s opaque, mass expansion of spy tools and framing of protesters, photographers, political opponents, and passersby as enemies of the state leans into people’s worst fears of a surveillance state. Your weaponization of DHS undercuts decades of effort to develop a Department that responsibly balances security with privacy and civil liberties protections and transparency,” the letter reads.
It then includes a list of demands for information from DHS. Many of them are about the legal regime behind those surveillance powers, and the technical infrastructure and policies related to them. One asks DHS for “Documentation of the Department’s definition of the term ‘domestic terrorist,’ a copy of the policies in place that permit Departmental designations of United States persons as a ‘domestic terrorist,’ and a description of the consequences of such a designation.”
“Your actions are abhorrent, blatantly unconstitutional, and corrosive to the functioning of a peaceful society. They cannot stand. Accountability is coming,” the letter adds.
