ICE Plans to Boost Its Surveillance on Social Media Using Contractors in Vermont

Source: US News and World Report/AP

Oct. 7, 2025, at 1:51 p.m.


U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to use a hub in Vermont to bolster its digital surveillance capabilities as the agency ramps up operations across the country at the direction of leaders in President Donald Trump’s administration.

According to federal contracting records, which were first reported by the technology magazine Wired, ICE plans to hire at least a dozen contracted workers for the effort at its National Criminal Analysis and Targeting Center, which is located in an unassuming business park in Williston. In addition, the agency would hire at least 16 contracted workers at a similar intelligence-gathering facility in Santa Ana, Calif.

The Vermont center is off Industrial Avenue, located a short drive from Patrick Leahy Burlington International Airport. It is largely unmarked from the outside and, according to Wired, handles investigations from across the eastern part of the country. Workers there already generate leads for ICE’s Office of Enforcement and Removal Operations, according to agency documents, compiling information field agents can then use to locate people ICE is targeting for deportation and other enforcement.

Draft plans published last week state, however, that ICE has had “limited success” using social media platforms and other information that’s available on the open web — which includes sites accessible to the public via search engines — for enforcement. The plans refer to an existing contractor though do not provide any specifics about it.

Read more: https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/vermont/articles/2025-10-07/ice-plans-to-boost-its-surveillance-on-social-media-using-contractors-in-vermont