WASHINGTON, D.C. — Immigration and Customs Enforcement has no current contract or relationship with Paragon Solutions, Inc., the agency said in a statement to NPR, and a notice on a federal procurement website indicated the contract was closed out on Jan. 20. The Department of Homeland Security declined to clarify whether ICE still has access to Paragon-developed tools, and ICE has not entered another contract with the company.

"DHS is not going to confirm or deny law enforcement capabilities or methods. Under President Trump, ICE is using all lawful tools to remove dangerous criminal illegal aliens from the U.S." the agency said in its statement.

ICE first entered into a contract with the U.S. subsidiary of Paragon Solutions in 2024 for an unspecified product. The Biden administration put the contract on hold to decide whether it complied with a 2023 executive order barring federal agencies from purchasing commercial spyware that poses a security risk to the United States or risk of misuse by foreign governments. ICE reactivated the previously paused contract last year.

Democratic lawmakers sent questions to DHS about the Paragon Solutions contract and ICE's use of spyware. In an April 1 letter, Todd Lyons wrote that he approved Homeland Security Investigations' procurement and operational use of commercial spyware tools to disrupt foreign terrorist organizations and fentanyl traffickers, and that he had certified the use of the tool was in compliance with the 2023 executive order.

Maria Villegas Bravo, an attorney with the nonprofit Electronic Privacy Information Center, said: "It's promising that they don't seem to be re-upping the contract immediately. I'm always wary of vaguely worded non-association statements, though."

Julie Mao, deputy director of Just Futures Law, questioned what surveillance tools the agency continues to use. "If it's not Paragon spyware, then what company and spyware does ICE use? And how does ICE use it?" she said. "The agency should provide a full account of its surveillance technologies to the American public."

Paragon Solutions, an Israeli-founded company whose founders include former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, is best known for making Graphite, a spyware tool that can remotely infiltrate devices and access encrypted messages without targets needing to click a link. In late 2024, AE Industrial Partners acquired Paragon Solutions to merge it with REDLattice, a cybersecurity company controlled by the same firm.

A government spying scandal in Italy first came to light after WhatsApp found some 90 users of its messaging app had been targeted with Graphite. Researchers at The Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto and Italian prosecutors confirmed Italian journalists and activists were among those targeted. Paragon ended its contract with Italian intelligence agencies after Italian authorities declined the company's help to determine whether its Graphite tool had been used against a journalist.