ICE's 'insidious' new program leaves security expert rattled: 'Cause for real concern'

Leaked documents revealed details on a new program launched by Immigration and Customs Enforcement known as “masked engagement,” a program that left one national security expert rattled, independent journalist Ken Klippenstein reported Friday on his Substack.

“CBP’s expansion into what they’re calling ‘masked engagement’ is cause for real concern,” said Rachel Levinson-Waldman, the director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, speaking with Klippenstein.

Klippenstein exclusively obtained leaked internal Homeland Security documents that revealed the existence of the “masked engagement” program, which allows for DHS officers to “assume false identities” and “interact with users” in “private digital spaces,” and without “the rigorous internal approvals and legal checks required for a formal undercover ‘sting,’” Klippenstein wrote.

“This new capability is being shoehorned in one step below undercover engagement (which already allows for a lot of overreach), it appears [Customs and Border Protection] believes that friending someone, following them, or joining a group is not as invasive as directly engaging or interacting with individuals,” Levinson-Waldman said, who also called the program “insidious.”

“In addition, doing so through an alias account – an account that doesn’t reveal the user’s [DHS] affiliation, and pretends to be someone else – will weaken trust in government and weaken the trust that is critical to building community both online and off.”

Other documents obtained by Klippenstein revealed that DHS – which ICE and CBP operate under – has utilized a number of pieces of software to conduct its monitoring of Americans, software with codenames such as “Shadow Dragon,” “GOST,” and “Creepy.”

The escalation in mass surveillance was so great that even a senior DHS official was left taken aback.

“Open source monitoring has become so ubiquitous that we even have databases of identities used by the department to track our own online engagements,” a senior DHS official told Klippenstein, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “Yes, we have safeguards against violating people’s privacy, but masked engagement is just the first step in breaching people’s privacy settings in ways that they are not even aware of.”