Ice Obtains Access To Spyware That Can Hack Phones & Encrypted Apps

The Trump administration’s quiet decision to hand Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) one of the world’s most invasive surveillance tools is raising deep alarm in Black and Brown communities already targeted by state violence. Public documents reveal ICE has been cleared to use Graphite, a spyware weapon built by Israeli-founded Paragon Solutions, capable of hacking “any phone” and even breaking into encrypted apps like WhatsApp and Signal. Once deployed, ICE could not only read messages and photos but also “use the phone as a listening device.”

For communities of color, this isn’t abstract. ICE has long been accused of violating rights, locking migrants in cages, and tearing families apart. Now, as one civil liberties advocate put it, “Spyware like Paragon’s Graphite poses a profound threat to free speech and privacy.” Nadine Farid Johnson of the Knight First Amendment Institute stressed that this expansion comes on top of “the rapid and dramatic expansion of Ice’s budget and authority.” The fear is clear: technology designed for foreign dictatorships is now being normalized in U.S. neighborhoods.

Experts warn the move undermines basic democratic principles. “Invasive, secret hacking power is corrupting,” said John Scott-Railton of Citizen Lab. “That’s why there’s a growing pile of spyware scandals in democracies, including with Paragon’s Graphite.” He emphasized the danger of selling such tech worldwide: “As long as the same mercenary spyware tech is going to multiple governments, there is a baked-in counterintelligence risk.”

Though Paragon insists it only sells to democracies and promises to cut off misuse, history tells another story. Its spyware was linked to abuses in Italy, where journalists and human rights activists were surveilled. For Black and Brown Americans, whose phones already face disproportionate searches at airports, traffic stops, and borders, the idea that ICE can now secretly take over a device feels like another escalation of control.

Biden once tried to set guardrails through an executive order banning spyware with “significant risks of improper use,” but those protections are now being bypassed. As Johnson warned, “The quiet lifting of the stop work order also raises the troubling prospect that parts of the executive branch are acting without adherence to the government’s own vetting requirements.”

For communities historically surveilled and criminalized, the message is chilling: digital freedom is shrinking, and ICE’s reach is expanding into every pocket.

Link: The Guardian