'They were tracking us:' ICE tracks protesters in secret database

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

58% : Lyons wrote that ICE was "fully committed to upholding the Constitution and respecting First Amendment rights of all individuals, including the right to peacefully assemble.
57% : " Each incident includes an ICE officer's brief description of the interaction, along with information about the protester's vehicle, license plates, photo of the car and whether the agent contacted local law enforcement.
56% : In an April 10 entry, an ICE officer wrote that a "bright blue Toyota car" followed them out of the main gate of a federal building.
55% : The males (sic) stated "You know why I'm following you," an ICE agent wrote in the database.
55% : An ICE officer in the Maine case mentions a "Master List of Agitators," though that list remains under court seal.
54% : Those fears became real when his status with Global Entry, a pre-screened flyer program, was revoked a day after one exchange in March with ICE.
54% : In general, following ICE officers, shouting at them or recording them in public spaces is lawful.
52% : "Black Hyundai began following ICE Officer.
52% : " Kevin Riach, an attorney defending some of the Minneapolis defendants on the criminal case, received a version of the same ICE database released to USA TODAY.
52% : " Some of the "agitators" in the database appeared to understand they could draw more scrutiny if they followed ICE agents across the state border between Minnesota and Wisconsin.
51% : Minnesota data shows legal observers ICE agents often reported benign interactions, such as, "I was followed," to enter a protester's detailed information into the database, according to the records released to USA TODAY.
51% : Redactions make it difficult to definitively match the vehicles in the ICE database with any of the 15 people charged by Minnesota federal prosecutors.
50% : The ICE agent called local police as he was traveling east toward Wisconsin.
49% : The document, titled simply Agitator Log, contains 60 instances of ICE officers in Minneapolis logging their interactions with protesters and legal observers around the Whipple Federal Building in the spring of 2026.
49% : " Weeks later in Maine, a masked ICE agent was caught on video taking a picture of a woman protester and saying: "We have a nice little database...
48% : While not identified by name, Khalili was driving a black Hyundai SUV during his interactions with ICE.
48% : Federal prosecutors charged 15 people in Minnesota in June for allegedly attempting to impede or injure federal law enforcement officers during the ICE surge last winter.
48% : "Called 911, they were not helpful..." an ICE officer wrote in a May 13 log that ended up in the database.
47% : USA TODAY sued Immigration and Customs Enforcement under the Freedom of Information Act and obtained a St. Paul field office database that reveals what legal observers feared: Protesters are being tracked and logged into a secret database for what they argue is exercising protected First Amendment speech.
47% : " Three days later, an ICE agent took down the plates of a "Maroon Chevy 4-door SUV Midsize" and wrote "Subject remained stopped at a stop sign at [redacted] for longer than a reasonable time with no traffic approaching and drove slower than reasonable in clear weather conditions."
45% : In a separate revelation on Oct. 2, a newly unsealed court filing in Maine revealed ICE is uploading photos of protesters into an "Investigative Case Management" database.
42% : ICE and DHS spokespeople did not immediately respond to USA TODAY about the existence of the database, but as recently as Oct. 2 told other media outlets that it's a "lie that there is a database of 'domestic terrorists' run by DHS." Search the database As new information emerges, ICE's denials increasingly do not square with the truth, said JoAnna Suriani, an attorney representing the Maine protesters with Project Democracy.
40% : However, many of the vehicles and situations line up, including in the case against Natasha Rakotz, who prosecutors claim drove her black Honda Civic into an ICE officer's Ford pickup truck on May 15 and has been charged with assault.
35% : " Lyons claimed the only time ICE keeps information on protesters is if their actions "go beyond protected speech," like threatening, assaulting or interfering with ICE operations.
34% : Concern over protests in Maine and Minnesota Whether the government was tracking Americans became an issue in January, after Renee Good was shot and killed while monitoring ICE agents in Minneapolis.
32% : " Lyons told them again, in an April follow-up letter to Democratic Florida Rep. Maxwell Frost and 11 others, "(ICE) does not maintain any kind of database of U.S. citizens protesting ICE activities."
27% : " Former ICE Director Todd Lyons testified under oath to Congress about allegations that ICE was tracking protesters in February.

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