ICE wants to know if you're posting negative things about it online | Hacker News Reader

ICE wants to know if you're posting negative things about it online

theintercept.com

235 pointsbelter130 comments

I have been using their contact form [1] to self report whenever I say something negative about ICE. I think they kind of suck. Oh whelp there I go again! Better let them know. The linked form has a "cybercrime" category, which I believe thought crimes fall under.

[1] https://www.ice.gov/webform/ice-tip-form

"In addition to compiling personal information — such as the Social Security numbers and addresses of those whose posts are flagged — the contractor will also provide ICE with a “photograph, partial legal name, partial date of birth, possible city, possible work affiliations, possible school or university affiliation, and any identified possible family members or associates.”

What's up with all of the "partial" if they have your SSN, they have you. This is the lamest attempt at whatever the fuck they are attempting. Why can't they just say they are doxxing anyone who has anything negative to say about <insertRecipientOfComplaints> as they continue to be the eye of sauron?

Wow, ICE is gonna be super bummed if and when the general public returns the favor.

I cannot wait for that

SSN doesn’t give them your parents and siblings social media accounts. They are basically farming out intelligence gathering not doxing.

They're already on your graph maintained by a slew of data brokers.

Wow, that's such a lazy thought process. They clearly already have your social accounts. The vast majority of people are already linked to their parental units on some sort of social platform.

The point is, if they have your SSN, they know who you are. Or, possibly the person whose identity you've stolen with your fake credentials, but that's beyond the scope of this little thought exercise.

They have your accounts, pictures, SSN, yet only a partial name? Seriously?? They have your SSN for pete's sake. It's not like the gov't only stores a partial name with that SSN. The whole thing is a farce of an attempt to make it sound less than what it truly is. Your attempt at making it sound like it's not doxxing is also farcical.

Related?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36435498 ("LexisNexis is selling personal data to ICE so it can try to predict crimes" (2023), 114 comments)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26672613 ("LexisNexis to Provide Giant Database of Personal Information to ICE" (2021), 26 comments)

This is the excellent government efficiency we have been promised.

The current administration sure is a great defender of the first amendment

I suspect we're entering a "if you don't have anything nice to say, keep it to yourself, especially if you dislike what a battering ram might do to your front door" period in US domestic policy.

Oh pretty soon saying nothing isn’t going to be an option either.

If we get to the point that the government mandates I open a Twitter account and start verbally felating ICE, I think I will emigrate.

Just say its against your religion to associate with the mark of the beast.

Good luck getting out at that point.

Not a surprise, if anyone has been following the development of American culture, it's just that the list of acceptable things to say is slowly stopping to include things that people on this website like to say, that's the only real change.

The difference is that there are culturally inappropriate things to say--that is, things that people who aren't completely toxic bigots generally agree you shouldn't yell in public, and then there are things ON THE LIST the right wing government fascists are going to kick your door down for uttering to two people online.

Sounds like this could lead to a lot of unnecessary government spending. Someone should let musk know.

Doesn't sound much like free speech either.

Neither does banning the AP for refusing to use "Gulf of America" sound much like free press.

This is American agency, there is no free speech in America... :)

Whatever do you mean? We are all 100% free to say anything on the approved phrase list.

ICE is trying to track you online!

Please enter your email to continue reading...

https://twitter.com/dril/status/473265809079693312

Twitter link is on point, no matter what it says, just for being twitter.

The Intercept wasn't even good at journalism in the days of the Snowden leaks.

I read the article (the paywall is javascript). I want to have satisaction from the anxiety of the current admin, and I know that bad things are happening, but I just can't trust this org or anyone in their network. My biggest takeaway is that Trump admin is maybe planning illegal mass deportations, but I already knew that before reading the article.

ICE represents so much currently wrong with america today: a bipartisan-supported, taxpayer-funded gang of thugs that exist to ensure a cheap source of labor. what's actually driving down wages is the fact that a lack of reliable and legal mechanism to find citizenship if you already live here means many if not most people are willing to turn a blind eye to the same taking of jobs and downward pressure on wages that got everyone upset in the first place to avoid cruelly displacing someone from a place they call home.

So yea ICE can suck a fuck.

I've been in this country since I was 3 years old. My parents and I have never committed a crime.

There is no pathway to citizenship for us that doesn't involve leaving the country for at least ten years.

It isn't ICE's fault that congress won't fix the immigration system.

So you're saying they're just following orders?

If your complaint is "the pathway to legal citizenship should be reformed", ICE is the wrong target.

I haven't taken any position, I'm only pointing out the parallels of the argument you're making to mistakes us humans have made in the past, that we don't want to make again.

But if you want me to make an assertion, I'll go with:

We're all on this blue marble together; Us vs Them is a negative sum game we don't want to play. ICE has earned the reputation they have, and until they do something that changes them from "dog murderers" and "targeting the wrong people", we shouldn't afford them any sympathy or excuses. ICE the organization might not directly be able to alter the laws they're given, but they can directly influence them, and change the way we talk about it. Individual ICE agents, likewise also can't change the laws they enforce, but they can change how they enforce them. They can spend more time doing what's right, instead of doing what's easy. They can take things a bit slower instead of murdering important family members, or making children afraid of what's going to happen to them.

Ok but I was replying to a specific post complaining about the pathway to citizenship.

Yes you were, you were also implicitly defending ICE. "It's not their fault." Perhaps, but they're contributing more towards making things worse, than making things better. So, technically correct or not, they deserve blame more than they do any kind of defense.

Oh, what, are they "just following orders"?

Nobody in this thread is blaming ICE for their own existence.

However, now that they exist and wield great political power, they probably should get some for their continued existence.

It is ICE's fault that they are targeting law abiding people (who contribute more to the country than they receive) and Americans [0] but are too afraid and/or incompetent to go after violent criminals.

0 - https://pix11.com/news/local-news/ice-agents-raid-nj-seafood...

Join the military and get fast tracked for a greencard.

American vets are getting caught up in ICE raids. These guys don't serve America, they are strictly white nationalists.

https://pix11.com/news/local-news/ice-agents-raid-nj-seafood...

White nationalism is indeed a major problem in ICE (and law enforcement in general), but I don't think this is an accurate way to paint the situation as a whole. This is what textbook nativism looks like, and many non-white americans are nativists as well. They rhyme and overlap and often share goals but they're not the same and they are often motivated by different fears.

What we see here looks more like this than like apartheid/jim crow (though if you look at how we treat legal immigrant labor it gets much blurier): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Wetback

When Americans are getting targeted because of the color of their skin, it goes beyond nativism to white supremacy.

Sign a four year contract and use that time to fix your status. If not it's on you.

I read a story years ago about an undocumented resident who worked as an MP in the military. Not a problem as everyone operates under the authority of the president. He left the service and became a police officer. That was a major issue as non-citizen's can't enforce civil law.

Maybe you should have read my comment instead of thinking about a story from years ago. I'll say it again: American vets are getting caught in ICE raids. Your status doesn't matter. The color of your skin does.

Haha, screw ICE. Honestly.

The document says the service will be required to monitor StumbleUpon and Vine (both of which shut down like 8 years ago), and also Bitly which they seem to think is a social media site.

Gosh I still miss StumbleUpon

You always think of the evil empire as having their shit more together than this…

I know some guys who order water with no ice, honestly, I think it's weird, should I report them?

Why yes, that's decidedly un-American behavior!

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/why-dont-other-c...

amazing that there's an article about it, thanks haha! Maybe we are the weird ones?

Blogspam paraphrase of source

https://archive.nytimes.com/opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/20...

I post in public for a reason. ICE is welcome to read my social media just like everybody else.

I don't say negative things about ICE so I have nothing to worry about.

So you claim, but I recall you saying terrible things about ICE so now you have something to worry about.

When I say bad things about ICE, I always mean the Inter City Express trains in Germany.

When the Syrian refugees were coming to Frankfurt, quite a lot of them arrived via trains, so they usually work as the opposite of the American ICE.

> I don't say negative things about ICE so I have nothing to worry about.

For the current definition of "negative".

Why wouldn't you say negative things about ICE? They suck, and are constantly coming up with ridiculous schemes like this to avoid criticism for the evils they're very aware they commit. Fuck ICE.

Not an ounce of sarcasm in my comment. If I had wanted a sarcasm tag, I would have added one.

Dismissed idea: acting in a way that wouldn't cast them in a negative light.

I mean, if I were a legal citizen and you mistakenly deported me and stole my child (left them with US CPS for protection) I might have some strong opinions about your moral standing. If you stole my child while legitimately deporting me I wouldn't look too favorably on you either. 15 states authorize you to kill people for lesser offenses ("stand your ground" laws and whatnot), and ICE has made tons of such "mistakes" and "oversights" over the years.

What's going on behind the scenes? Does this align more with any of the following three, or perhaps something else?

1. They claim they're getting enough death threats to warrant a proactive search. Maybe that's just a lie, and this is a power grab.

2. The internet has a lot of people giving death threats and other despicable behavior without cause. If that's you, please stop. ICE would be overreacting by taking that seriously though.

3. Is ICE performing enough atrocities that they're creating people legitimately interested in using violence to stop them? If so, taking a step back to reflect on your life choices seems like a healthier option than ramping up the likelihood of committing those atrocities.

Its just a lose-lose situation for ice.

1) they have been prevented from deporting all illegal aliens directly due to political influences in so-called sanctuary cities and various state laws.

2) now ICE is required by law, legislation and trump to deport those who have been living there for years. Illegals have no recourse other than notifying the agencies that are trying to remove them.

3) This HAS to be done in order to naturalise those that are eligible for citizenship.

4) all draconian measures mentioned in the article are probaly entirely justified given that certain people have been driven in to a corner with no way out after being in the US for years.

Not assessing the death threats would be foolish, knowing who is very interested in avoiding ICE and lives in the US is also of utmost importance.

>now ICE is required by law, legislation and trump to deport those who have been living there for years

They could quit and get a different job that benefits society more, like stocking shelves at a grocery store.

This is the right answer. This is a job, something each individual worker signed up for, and continues to show up for. They're not being forced to carry out their work, and actions have consequences. They need to accept those consequences, or find a new line of work, preferably the latter because fuck ICE and its employees.

Right-To-Work goes both ways!

I really don't think your numbering scheme lines up with who you're responding to.

> 1. They claim they're getting enough death threats to warrant a proactive search. Maybe that's just a lie, and this is a power grab.

> 1) they have been prevented from deporting all illegal aliens directly due to political influences in so-called sanctuary cities and various state laws.

Biden deported more people than Trump [1]. Any notion that deportations have been halted is false.

As far as deportations w.r.t. death threats. This isn't an immigration problem; they should refer threats to the FBI.

> 2. The internet has a lot of people giving death threats and other despicable behavior without cause. If that's you, please stop. ICE would be overreacting by taking that seriously though.

> 2) now ICE is required by law, legislation and trump to deport those who have been living there for years. Illegals have no recourse other than notifying the agencies that are trying to remove them.

This is very hard to unify. However, as I pointed out for (1); people have been deported for years nothing has changed recently.

> 3. Is ICE performing enough atrocities that they're creating people legitimately interested in using violence to stop them? If so, taking a step back to reflect on your life choices seems like a healthier option than ramping up the likelihood of committing those atrocities.

> 3) This HAS to be done in order to naturalise those that are eligible for citizenship.

ICE needs to commit an atrocity for somebody to be naturalized? While ICE and USCIS are part of DHS; it's not ICE's job to naturalize anybody so uh ICE doesn't have to do anything to naturalize somebody because USCIS does the naturalizing.

> 4) all draconian measures mentioned in the article are probaly entirely justified given that certain people have been driven in to a corner with no way out after being in the US for years.

Eh, this is like all the comments about how Gitmo needs to be super secret because one time a friend of a guard's brother got into a fender bender with somebody that said something negative about Gitmo. If there's actually a perpetual threat to ICE it would be super easy to provide recepits.

[1]: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c36e41dx425o

Oh look - the dirtbags at ICE are trying to go full Stasi... go figure the trash arm of US law enforcement is cowering in fear rather than being productive. It's best that every last ICE agent is an incompetent twat - like seriously, the best way to know someone is unqualified for the job is that they applied to ICE - otherwise things could get really ugly for people here legally too.

Fortunately I don't have to worry about the morons, cowards, and completely useless trash at ICE_- apparently my negative comment scares them into whining about people saying mean things. I wish they have a really really shitty day - the fools at ICE that is.

did ICE ever account for the missing children?

does this get me on the list?

reported :)

I reported you for reading dissent... :-)

fuck

In the grand digital regime, if you submit two official commendations for Trump and three for Elon Musk, the Supreme Algorithm shall recalibrate your citizen social karma to a positive status. Comply!

Thoughtcrime.

ICE should be disbanded.

I wish the government used money more efficiently. This whole ICE thing seems like a bad unnecessary flex. We already have more important issues to address including health care, gun violence... and we're deporting taqueros and fruit pickers, really...?

This seems to be right up Glenn Greenwald's alley. I wonder if he'll report it now that he makes a lot of excuses for Trump (to Greenwald's credit, he still reports free speech hypocrisy of Republicans when it comes to censoring Gaza supporters).

He did found The Intercept, but later resigned.

His core principals seems to be anti-Westernism and general contrarianism.

I'm calling BS.

> ICE wants to know if you're posting negative things about it online (theintercept.com)

Nope. If you actually read (you know, it's not that hard, it's like that thing you do when you do leetcode? Give it a try, it's not that difficult!) the document ("25517962-statement-of-objectives"), you can see that it clearly states that it's only looking for threats against ICE employees or facilities. (The chuckleheads posting "fuck Ice" in the comments here are fine. But they knew that...)

> It’s unclear how exactly any contractor might sniff out someone’s “proclivity for violence.”

The intercept should stop playing stupid, it's a bad look. Hasn't sentiment analysis been around for 20+ years now? Get with the times, grandpa!

> In addition to compiling personal information — such as the Social Security numbers

Yeah that's under a section that starts: "The Contractor shall provide public records details on the individual, as available". If your Facebook account uses your real name, and your real name is rare enough that it can be matched to a public SSN database, guess what? You'll never guess. It's craazay!

https://archive.is/HA2It

Is that like posting "Don't eat yellow snow" or "Don't eat yellow ICE" ?

In the mean time they are likely feeding everyone's data to Palantir's monster.

ICE --> Hail --> Heil

Oh well in that case let me just put this out there: to hell with ICE.

Conservatives don't care about free speech. They only care about control. They are not skilled at governing and many of their governance goals are illegal, so they have to resort to strong arm tactics like this.

You can bellyache all day about getting downvoted on reddit or flagged on here, but when the government is trying to target people for dissent, that's when we're actually into territory the founding fathers were scared of.

I'm torn.

On one hand, someone should tell whoever is in charge of this edict that it is probably not a good idea. It is likely to backfire, and the harder you double down, the worse it will get. Public opinion will probably turn negative quickly, as you will wind up coming off as petty and insecure.

On the other hand, the last time we saw a large scale misunderstanding of how to deal with the Internet like this was probably the COVID-19 snitching hotlines, so realistically we're just about due for another one.

Not saying it'll all be fun and games but it might be popcorn time.

They've been rounding up native american citizens, public opinion would already be abysmal in a functioning democracy

I mean public opinion about this specific operation, not in general.

Native Americans, specifically the Navajo, have been questioned by agents, but there have been no mass persecution or arrests of Native Americans. That was a rumor spread on social media without any provenance.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/trump-immigration-raids-...

https://www.yahoo.com/news/checked-reports-ice-detaining-nat...

I cannot emphasize enough how huge of a story it would be if the United States government was legitimately rounding up Native Americans. Given existing racial tensions and historical controversy, that would on the front pages for days on end. It would be as juicy a story as the German feds mass arresting Jews.

PP was referring to native US Americans, not First People.

It's weird that you are downplaying this. Are you ironically alluding to how the Holocaust was underreported in contemporaneous media before the US joined WWII?

They probably simply read “native american citizens” as referring to Natives Americans. There’s no need to cast aspirations.

ICE are the Nazi Gestapo of 2025.

I don't think Nazi comparisons are allowed on HN. Even if they're accurate.

I doubt ICE would view the comparison as a negative one.

Can I see your papers? Are you harboring enemies of the state?

https://nativenewsonline.net/currents/tribal-nations-urge-ci...

Hate to make their job harder here, but unfortunately I have nothing positive to say about the low rent Nazis ICE. If they care about citizenship, I urge them to first and foremost set a good example and get a real job.

Who else get Chinese state surveillance vibes?

Land of the free and freedom of speech, yeah sure.

Meanwhile in Europe:

"Vance criticises Europe over free speech and democracy" (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c24728zpp70t)

Ironic?

Every accusation is a confession with these people.

Wait, this is a quote from Vance: "if American democracy can survive 10 years of Greta Thunberg scolding, you guys can survive a few months of Elon Musk".

What the hell are these guys talking about, even?

Either Greta is as powerful as Musk or Musk as powerless as Greta.

These are both obviously false though. For anyone to even consider this, it should call into question their mental facilities.

Well, I am.

I really miss when the GOP maintained at least some token efforts regarding libertarianism and such. Instead we get these weird talking points from them, and then dramatically opposite actions when in power.

We got "omg silicon valley" in government, overreaching security services, weird sort of banned words work going on ...

I guess they’re tossing out the First and Fourth amendments now

100% Orwellian doublespeak and doublethink from here on out.

Eh, put ‘em on the pile. There’s not much left at this point.

Fourth Amendment got tossed out by SCOTUS in Egbert v Boule in 2022 for the nearly 66% of Americans that live within 100 miles of a border.

Fascism.

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