The Trump administration is apparently using every weapon in its arsenal to detain unauthorized migrants in the U.S., including a high-tech cell phone surveillance tool known as the Stingray, according to recently uncovered federal court records.
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The Detroit News uncovered usage of the location-spying device after obtaining an unsealed federal search warrant. The Stingray was used in March by FBI and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to locate Rudy Carcamo-Carranza, a 23-year-old restaurant worker from El Salvador who is alleged to have driven under the influence and taken part in a hit-and-run crash.
The Stingray – also known as a cell-site simulator – is a device that's small enough to fit in a car. Federal and local law enforcement have used the information to track subjects in real time. The device masquerades as an extremely powerful cell-phone tower and can draw information from up to 10,000 phones simultaneously, including within private residences, and can even intercept communications. The phone-tracker was unveiled by defense contractor Harris Corporation in 2003.
Civil liberties advocates have long called the broad use of the device unconstitutional on Fourth Amendment grounds, arguing that it poses a major threat to U.S. residents' privacy. U.S. Marshals have used the device from small planes during dragnet operations to track down fugitives among tens of thousands of mobile phone users.
“(Extending) this extraordinary enforcement authority to ICE poses a severe risk to immigrant communities, regardless of criminal record,” Hamid Khan, coordinator of the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, told teleSUR.
Khan's grassroots coalition has long fought against the stealthy incorporation of warrantless surveillance and data-mining technology such as Stingrays, automated license plate readers, and drones into the toolkits of law enforcement agencies such as the Los Angeles Police Department. In 2013, the LAPD was revealed to have purchased a stingray on “terrorist-related” pretexts, but privacy advocates say it's been used for all types of investigations.
Usage of the phone-tracking device by state security bodies was only revealed during discovery proceedings resulting from a 2008 fraud case. Data provided showed that the FBI distributed 48 Stingray systems to police departments and law enforcement agencies across the U.S., on condition that the agencies withheld information regarding the devices from the courts or the public. Before long, usage of the device became widespread and was used to pursue petty offenders and serious criminals alike.
"Once you start giving agencies fancy toys, and somebody is making money off of it, they are going to use them for more things, and ultimately oppress your rights," Electronic Frontier Foundation grassroots advocacy director Shahid Buttar told Detroit News.
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The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice spent $US95 million on more than 430 Stingray devices from 2010 to 2014, according to a congressional report released late last year. 194 belong to the FBI, while the DHS has 124 devices. While law enforcement is obligated to obtain a search warrant to use the device, the FBI has argued that warrants are not required.
“The use of Stingray devices or cell phone site simulators to trace, track and monitor immigrants has been a regular feature of ICE's Electronic Surveillance system – ELSUR – for several years,” Khan explained.
“ICE claims that ELSUR is used for 'intercepting oral, wire, or electronic communications during the course of criminal investigation,' but under the Presidential Executive Order – Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States, issued on Jan. 25, 2017, ICE can 'prioritize for removal those aliens' who 'In the judgment of an immigration officer, otherwise pose a risk to public safety or national security,'” Khan continued.
Carcamo-Carranza had faced deportation twice before returning to the U.S. on both occasions. However, the federal manhunt began after he made an illegal turn, striking a vehicle before fleeing. Nobody was injured in the accident, and Carcamo-Carranza was released before ICE could detain him. In January, ICE agents obtained a warrant to comb through his Facebook account, as well as his private messages, which revealed his phone number and address. Before long – and with the assistance of Stingray tracking technology – Carcamo Carranza was detained. He now faces up to 10 years in federal prison and inevitably, removal from the country.
Advocates and organizers like Khan have pushed to restrict or end usage of the Stingray device. Nevertheless, there's no telling where the right-wing nationalist administration of Donald Trump will draw the line in deploying such means to detain nonviolent undocumented workers like Carcamo-Carranza.
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