Federal Agencies Use Cellphone Location Data for Immigration Enforcement

Apparently, the Trump administration has bought access to a commercial database that maps the movements of millions of cellphones in America and is using it for immigration and border enforcement. The location data is drawn from ordinary cellphone apps, including those for games, weather and e-commerce, for which the user has granted permission to log the phone’s location. The Department of Homeland Security has used the information to detect undocumented immigrants and others who may be entering the US unlawfully, apparently. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a division of DHS, has used the data to help identify immigrants who were later arrested. US Customs and Border Protection, another agency under DHS, uses the information to look for cellphone activity in unusual places, such as remote stretches of desert that straddle the Mexican border. Experts say the information amounts to one of the largest known troves of bulk data being deployed by law enforcement in the US—and that the use appears to be on firm legal footing because the government buys access to it from a commercial vendor, just as a private company could, though its use hasn’t been tested in court.