ERO ONE: Identifying Connections Between People and Reconstructing Networks of Relationships
The new intelligence program of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the notorious agency responsible for immigration enforcement that has been spreading fear among immigrants and US citizens alike, is called ERO ONE (Enforcement and Removal Operations Overwatch and National Security Enforcement).
The project appears in documents published on September 18 on SAM.gov, the federal government’s public procurement portal. The draft statement of work outlines plans to employ 142 intelligence research analysts with Top Secret security clearances, supported by two supervisors, across 24 cities, including New York and Washington, as well as three national operations centers. The solicitation for contractors is scheduled for December 10, with the contract expected to be awarded in February and operations set to begin in the second quarter of 2027.
The implementation timeline is extremely tight. Through ICE, the government aims to systematically process classified and unclassified information from the outset, identifying recurring patterns, relationships, connections across geographic areas, and temporal links. These analyses may be translated into maps designed to support agency operations. Under Trump, ICE continues to focus on implementing the mass deportation plan targeting undocumented immigrants—a campaign that has also affected political opponents, anti-Zionist activists, and protesters against the genocide in Gaza and the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
The key issue is that tracking will not be limited to the individual under investigation. Family members, friends, colleagues, and acquaintances may also appear in reconstructed contact networks. The documents do not specify which sources will be used, nor do they clearly establish who will be subjected to this type of analysis.
Lavender and Where’s Daddy? From Gaza to the United States, with Some Adaptations
The investigative documentary Naza (a Hebrew military acronym for “Collateral Damage”) has revealed to the world how military intelligence operates in the occupied Palestinian territories. Systems such as Lavender and Where’s Daddy? do not merely collect passive call records. They carry out a form of physical intrusion into devices: taking control of a phone’s hardware, listening through its remotely activated ambient microphone—capturing audio before it is encrypted by apps such as Signal—viewing personal photos and videos to extract geographic metadata, and tracking GPS locations in real time to alert assault forces as soon as a target returns home.
In the United States, to circumvent constitutional restrictions, ERO ONE analysts have access to a patchwork of platforms capable of replicating aspects of the Israeli surveillance system used in Gaza. For example, through WebLoc (the Tangles platform), ICE can legally purchase geolocation data from data brokers, derived from advertising streams generated by commercial apps, rather than breaking into phones directly. Much like Where’s Daddy?, this technology can map movements in real time to identify private residences and political groups.
ICE also already uses IMSI catchers, commonly known as Stingrays: tactical devices that simulate public mobile phone towers. They force phones in a given area—for example, at a protest—to connect to them, intercepting identifying codes, tracking devices inside buildings, and capturing unencrypted data traffic.
Through Palantir ELITE, ICE can also access health, commercial, and social media data, calculate a “reliability score,” and generate lists of human targets that mirror those produced by Lavender in Gaza.
The Automated Repression of Dissent: Students and Political Opponents
Evidence that this apparatus can serve as a tool of political repression, rather than merely immigration enforcement, is already emerging. An investigation by Amnesty International has confirmed what authorities have openly acknowledged as though it were entirely routine: ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have already used these data-tracking platforms to conduct mass surveillance operations targeting student movements on US university campuses.
By combining automated social media analysis with relational graphs (link charts) created by analysts, federal agencies map the organizational structures of dissent. For international students and non-US citizens who take part in demonstrations, inclusion in these networks can trigger automated visa alerts, leading to arbitrary revocations and immediate deportation proceedings intended to silence protests.
Internal documents also reportedly reveal that the network has been extended to include civil rights monitors and political activists considered inconvenient by the establishment.
The recent ICE raid at the home of Ilhan Omar, a political opponent, Somali refugee, and naturalized American citizen, allegedly aimed at stripping her of her citizenship. This is presented as the latest sign of the system’s repressive and fascistic trajectory, on the eve of the midterm elections.
In the convergence of automation and ERO ONE’s targeted analysis, legal accountability risks disappearing behind the autonomy granted to algorithms. In this respect, the impunity afforded to Israeli soldiers as direct perpetrators of the genocide in Gaza is setting a precedent.