To its credit, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency is moving to improve its tracking of wanted individuals. They’re going to create a whole new unit with the specific task of monitoring social media. This project will put at least 12 full-time staff to track social media platforms out of the base in Williston, Vermont. In addition, it plans to onboard 16 contractors for the Santa Ana, California office.
ICE’s National Criminal Analysis and Targeting Center is located in Williston. It will serve as the East Coast hub for this multiyear, pandemic-predicting surveillance project. The team is intentionally positioned to increase the agency’s overall efficiency and effectiveness. This method is particularly effective in finding leads for their Top 10 Most Wanted list and other high priority cases.
Staffing and Operations
In order to provide continuous monitoring, no less than three staff will be present at the Vermont facility around the clock. These analysts will work on high-priority, time-sensitive cases that require fast turnaround times. They often fast-track these cases to do so due to their connection to ICE’s Top 10 Most Wanted list. Analysts assigned to these critical cases must operate within a tight 30-minute time frame to search for potential leads and actionable intelligence.
Outside of emergency referrals, analysts will process lower-priority referrals for individuals with non-felony convictions or misdemeanors. For these exceptions, analysts will have a wider timeframe of eight hours to do their analytical and investigative work. This model would help provide a more procedural basis to balance the many sensitive and complex types of cases that ICE handles.
Geographic Distribution of Resources
The multiyear initiative will create a new joint operations and support office on each coast of the United States, extending ICE’s operational capacity. The Vermont facility will be doing social media monitoring. At the same time, our Santa Ana office will deepen these efforts by adding more contractors to the mix. This unique dual-office setup maximizes limited resources. It increases communication and collaboration across prosecution teams working on various case types.
Private analysts hired at each site will be crucial to augment the surveillance efforts that will lead to arrests and prosecutions. Their work will hugely support ICE’s mission to find, arrest, and remove those who are sought after. All the while, they’ll be making public safety and community security a top priority.
Future Implications
The establishment of this social media surveillance team represents a significant step forward for ICE in leveraging technology to aid law enforcement efforts. ICE is continuing to develop its analytical capabilities and to improve response times. This will increase its aforementioned effectiveness in going after the people who actually do threaten public safety.
