The Trump administration's immigration enforcement agency has been quietly collecting and retaining biometric and biographical records on American protesters who are never arrested or charged with any crime, according to an NPR exclusive published June 10, 2026. The revelation comes directly from a letter that ICE's own acting director sent to Congress in April, a letter that contradicts his sworn testimony before Congress just two months earlier.
NPR was the first news organization to review the letter, dated April 21 and signed by then-acting ICE Director Todd Lyons. At a February congressional hearing, Lyons told lawmakers flatly: "There is no database for protesters." The April letter tells a different story.
What Lyons Actually Admitted in Writing
The April letter was written in response to Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) and 11 other Democratic members of Congress who had asked DHS in February what data it collects on protesters. Lyons acknowledged that ICE had collected "information to identify individuals reasonably believed to be involved in, or directly supporting, potential violations of federal law." The letter stated ICE gathers "essential biographic and biometric information and situational details" during these encounters.
Then Lyons confirmed the records are kept: "If individuals who interact with ICE officers are not arrested or detained, any information collected during those encounters is maintained consistent with applicable law and DHS and ICE policies and is treated as an official government record."
In other words, a person who peacefully observes an ICE operation, is never charged, never detained, and walks away free can still have a biometric government record opened on them.
"This letter is evidence of the fact that ICE is knowingly collecting and maintaining official government records on any protestor or lawful observer that its agents claim is potentially interfering with them or threatening agent safety." — JoAnna Suriani, Protect Democracy
The Gap Between "No Database" and What Lyons Wrote
Civil liberties lawyers were direct about what the letter means. Scarlet Kim, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU, pointed out the key sleight of hand in Lyons' framing: the letter technically denies a "separate, standalone database" for uncharged individuals, but says nothing about whether that information flows into existing federal data systems.
"He did not deny that, essentially, that information would not be placed in other existing databases," Kim told NPR.
Kim also flagged the broader problem with the administration's stated threshold for collecting information. DHS has equated activities like video recording federal agents and sharing that footage publicly with potential crimes that threaten officer safety. Under that standard, a person exercising a clear First Amendment right could trigger the very surveillance they are guaranteed protection from.
Rep. Frost told NPR he plans to continue pressing the department: "That's the concern, is that we have an agency that's been tasked with immigration enforcement having a database relating to Americans exercising the First Amendment, which is wrong."
The Couple in Maine Who Found Out the Hard Way
Pediatric occupational therapist Xenia Pantos stopped in Portland, Maine in January to observe federal immigration agents parked in the road. Pantos stayed at least 10 feet away and never interacted with agents. Hours later, Pantos' spouse, Carly Williams, received a call from a blocked number — a caller who identified himself as calling from the Department of Homeland Security.
"What he basically said was, 'You should let her know to not do that anymore because people who are doing that type of thing are getting added to a domestic terrorist watch list,'" Williams recalled. "That was a pretty terrifying phone call to receive."
DHS declined to comment on the couple's account.
Two months later, at the U.S. border crossing on their return from a Quebec City anniversary trip, a CBP officer pulled them aside, took their phones and keys for about an hour, and asked Williams to describe and recite the license plate number of her own car. The couple concluded Pantos' license plate, recorded by a federal agent that January morning in Maine, had triggered an alert linked to their passports.
"I feel really concerned about what has happened with my data and the data of so many other people," Pantos told NPR.
A Pattern Across Multiple States
Pantos and Williams are not alone. Observers in Minnesota, Tennessee, and other states have reported that federal agents photographed their faces and license plates, then later appeared near their homes. Several people lost their Global Entry pre-clearance status after being recorded near ICE operations. A January DHS memo reviewed by CNN instructed federal agents in Minneapolis to collect personal information about protesters and bystanders, including license plates, identification, and images.
At a congressional hearing last week, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin confirmed the department used facial recognition technology on people gathered outside Delaney Hall, an immigration detention center in New Jersey. "I have zero tolerance," Mullin said. "If you verbally assault our officers... we will find you, we will arrest you."
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) filed a lawsuit last month seeking federal records about the alleged database, after DHS failed to respond to three public records requests within the legally required 20-day window.
What Congress Asked and Did Not Get
The Democrats' February letter to DHS asked specifically about watchlist programs named "Bluekey, Grapevine, Hummingbird, Reaper, Sandcastle, Sienna, Slipstream, and Sparta," which journalist Ken Klippenstein had reported were being used to track anti-ICE protesters, pro-Palestinian demonstrators, and people designated as "Antifa." Lyons' April letter responded only that "ICE does not maintain, add, or access information from the programs mentioned in your letter."
The letter did not address whether other parts of DHS use those programs. The Democrats' letter was addressed to the DHS Secretary; the response came only from ICE, leaving unanswered what CBP, the Secret Service, or the FBI may be doing with protest-derived data.
Rep. Frost told NPR he has far more questions to ask and will keep pressing. The April letter he received was supposed to close the loop. It opened a new one.
Sources
- NPR: ICE denies having a protester database. But a letter to Congress sheds more light (June 10, 2026)
- OPB: A new lawsuit alleges DHS illegally tracked and intimidated observers (February 23, 2026)
- FIRE: FIRE sues DHS for information about alleged database of ICE protesters
- ACLU: Face Recognition and the Trump Terror
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