Immigration and Customs Enforcement acknowledged for the first time that its surveillance technology arsenal includes spyware, with acting Director Todd Lyons writing on April 1 that he had approved the agency's Homeland Security Investigations team to use the technology without naming the specific tool. According to ICE, the approved use is intended to help disrupt foreign terrorist groups and fentanyl traffickers.

ICE is expanding its use of surveillance tools and targeting both immigrants and protesters. Congress is debating whether additional guardrails are needed to protect the rights of American citizens whose communications are swept up in foreign surveillance operations that do not currently require a warrant.

In 2024, ICE signed a now-ended $2 million contract with Paragon Solutions, an Israeli-founded spyware company, for an unspecified product. The Biden administration put the contract on hold to investigate whether it complied with a 2023 executive order prohibiting federal agencies from purchasing commercial spyware posing security or misuse risks. In August 2025, the Trump administration reinstated the ICE contract with Paragon Solutions and lifted the stop work order. By that time, Paragon had been acquired by an American private equity firm and merged with REDLattice. A notice in federal procurement documents shows the contract was modified on January 20, 2026, to close out the contract.

Paragon Solutions created a spyware tool called Graphite that can remotely hack into a cell phone without the user knowing or clicking a link. Researchers say Pegasus spyware can turn a phone into a recording device and access its contents.

Governments around the world have used spyware to counter national security threats and to spy on political rivals, diplomats, human rights activists and journalists. Foreign governments were found misusing spyware to commit human rights violations and to target devices belonging to American politicians and officials.

Former President Joe Biden blacklisted and sanctioned some spyware companies and personnel, issued an executive order limiting the government's use of commercial spyware, and led an international agreement with other democratic countries to counter the misuse of commercial spyware. The Trump administration lifted sanctions that the Treasury Department had instituted against three people affiliated with the spyware tool Predator.

"There's no way to look at the facts without seeing that this administration is not going to forcefully work to counter spyware — and actually might be quite comfortable using it and also lifting punishment that has been doled out to spyware violators," said Michael De Dora, U.S. advocacy manager for the digital civil rights organization Access Now.

"We're starting to see erosion. There's a concern that in the coming year, months, we could see further changes that would really put a damper on what I think has been a really important effort to try to hold this industry to account," said Steve Feldstein, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Representative Summer Lee (D-Pa.) and other Democratic lawmakers wrote to the Department of Homeland Security last fall requesting all communications related to its use of spyware, including those about Paragon Solutions' Graphite, targets of the spyware and the legal justification for its use. It is unclear whether ICE continues to have access to Paragon tools after the contract closure notice.