On an unknown date, watchlists intended for use by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) were formed to conduct surveillance on anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), pro-Palestinian, so-called “Antifa,” and other protesters deemed to be “domestic terrorists.” This information was leaked on January 28.
Earlier this month, Trump border czar Tom Homan stated to Fox “News” that the administration intends to create a database for individuals who allegedly interfere, impede, or assault federal agents.
While the precise nature (i.e., scope and functionality) of most of these surveillance tools are unknown, some of their codenames have been revealed: “Bluekey, Grapevine, Hummingbird, Reaper, Sandcastle, Sienna, Slipstream, and Sparta (including the ominous sounding HEL-A and HEL-C reports generated by Sparta).” The original purpose of Hummingbird was to track Afghan immigrants, as many entered the United States following the Taliban takeover. Slipstream served as “a classified social media repository.”
These watchlists are utilized by ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to organize information that is collected by field agents and the public. These agencies are also responsible for analyzing information on protesters to establish a “common operating picture.” This information allows for the targeted surveillance and arrest of individuals on this list, and to track their associates via “‘call chaining’ by processing telephone numbers, emails, and other contact information.”
The DHS and Department of Justice (DOJ) have cooperated to track “aggressive protesters.” However, some protesters deemed “aggressive” by the Trump administration, were not violent or committing criminal acts. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche offered an Orwellian interpretation of what an “aggressive protester” is:
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche alluded to the term in a recent CNN interview, saying: “He [Alex Pretti] was not protesting peacefully—he was screaming in the face of ICE, he had a phone up right into ICE’s face. You tell me: is that protesting peacefully?”
When the CNN host pointed out that Pretti wasn’t violent, Blanche actually agreed, but went on to argue that there’s a third category for protest that is neither violent nor peaceful.
“I did not say that he was violent,” Blanche interjected, adding: “I said that he was not protesting peacefully.”
Ken Klippenstein
According to the Brennan Center’s Liberty and National Security Program director, Rachel Levinson-Waldman, National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 and a December 5 memo by Attorney General Pam Bondi that further centralizes executive power serve as legal justifications for the watchlists. The administration established such legal justifications because watchlists on Americans using their First Amendment rights are illegal under the Privacy Act, though some exceptions apply.
According to a DHS lawyer and a senior intelligence official, data is collected to an excessive extent; the watchlists are more of a result of the demand for organizing vast amounts of data than an order from the administration. While federal agents on the beat may collect information to assess criminality, criminality is often assumed once that information is processed on a watchlist.
While the September 11 terrorist attacks spurred efforts to create a singular terrorist watchlist to streamline information, the January 6 attack on the Capitol drove intelligence agencies to expand “exponentially into purely domestic watchlisting.” The nature of these watchlists is clandestine. While those post-September 11 reforms bore fruit, with twelve watchlists being consolidated into three known ones, the number of domestic watchlists is unknown. The DHS attorney described them as being part of a “compartmented superstructure that few even understand.”
