Lawmakers Say Black And Brown Citizens Are At Risk As ICE Acknowledges Use Of Spyware

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has admitted to using spyware tools that have the power to intercept encrypted messages to target fentanyl traffickers, but Rep. Summer Lee is highlighting how Black and Brown citizens will be the ones at risk.  In a statement from the Democratic lawmaker from Pennsylvania, she called the ICE agency out for avoiding the privacy concerns handed down by members of Congress before greenlighting what she labeled as “the invasive spyware technology inside the United States.” Lee pinpointed who she feels are the real victims of such spyware as Graphite, owned by the Israeli company Paragon Solutions — Black and brown people. “The people most at risk, including immigrants, Black and brown communities, journalists, organizers, and anyone speaking out against government abuse, deserve more than secrecy and deflection from an agency with a long record of overreach and abuse,” she wrote in a press release posted to her website . According to NPR , the agency’s acting director, Todd Lyons, sent a letter shortly before the Easter holiday confirming the group uses a number of tools to disrupt and dismantle foreign terrorist organizations, “particularly those involved in the trafficking of fentanyl.” Lyons approved the Graphite contract for Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) to use what is known as “zero click” technology to access encrypted mes…