Ice accessed car trackers in sanctuary cities that could help in raids, files show
Westchester county has laws limiting cooperation, but Ice has accessed trove of data that holds license plate readersJohana Bhuiyan
Tue 11 Mar 2025 16.11 EDT
As Donald Trump’s administration ramps up its crackdown on undocumented immigrants to the US, advocates are increasingly worried immigration agents will turn to surveillance technology to round up those targeted for deportation, even in so-called “sanctuary cities” that limit the ways local law enforcement can cooperate with immigration officials.
That’s because US Customs and Immigration Enforcement (Ice) in past years has gained access to troves of data from sanctuary cities that could aid its raids and enforcement actions. Among that information is data from the vast network of license plate readers active across the US, according to documents obtained by the Guardian.
Local agencies across the country use license plate readers, high-speed cameras that scan and capture images and videos of every vehicle that passes, to collect information on vehicular activity, including the direction a vehicle is moving. They store those details in databases that are often shared with other local law enforcement agencies as well as federal ones. The volume of data gathered along with the wide breadth of bureaus that have access to it mean that federal agents in practice can often obtain information on individual immigrants gathered by local authorities those same agents are legally not allowed to work with.
ap.com
