ICE Using Stingrays To Track Down Immigrants Because Of Course It Is

Privacy

from the high-value-targets-just-means-everyone dept

As information about police use of cell tower spoofers began leaking out, those who had kept the public (including defendants, judges, and even some prosecutors) out of the loop began defending their use of domesticated military technology. They said pay no attention to the possible civil liberties violations. Just think of all the good they’re doing. They promised Stingrays would only be used on the worst of the worst, and only when time was of the essence: terrorists, murderers, kidnappers, etc.

But then even more Stingray documents made their way into the public domain. These showed the devices were deployed in bog-standard drug investigations or, worse, used just because agencies had them. This perhaps reached its nadir when a police department fired up its Stingray to hunt down someone who had stolen less than $60 worth of fast food. To make matters worse, the Stingray failed to track down the alleged thief.

Of course, anyone paying attention knew Stingrays would be used for nothing of importance, despite public officials’ statements otherwise. The first person to start digging into Stingray use was Daniel Rigmaiden, who was doing time for fraud. Not exactly the sort of crime one would associate with exigent circumstances and possible danger to the public.

And, of course, because it’s now the government’s foremost priority to toss undocumented immigrants out of the country, Stingrays are being used to accomplish this goal. And, just like the defensive statements made on behalf of IMSI catchers, the federal government has claimed it’s only interested in removing the most dangerous of undocumented individuals first. These statements are also false.

Federal officials in Detroit used a secretive tool known as a “Stingray” — which tricks cell phones into revealing their location — to find an undocumented man for deportation.

The cell-site simulator has been used in the past by federal and local law enforcement to find murder suspects, kidnap victims, drug dealers and terrorists — but sometime in March, FBI and ICE officials used it to find a 23-year-old native of El Salvador to deport him.

The alleged criminal act being used as leverage — both for the Stingray deployment and the use of ICE’s “eject” button — is a long ways from the Parade of Horribles used to justify the acquisition and use of cell tower spoofers.

According to the warrant, Carcamo-Carranza was deported in 2012 and 2015 to El Salvador, but returned to the US.

In Feb. 28, 2016, he was arrested in Shelby Township, Michigan, on suspicion of hit-and-run, but was released by local police before he was detained by ICE agent.

Also of note: ICE used a warrant to pry loose this phone number, serving one to Facebook which gave it access to Carranza’s private messages. Just throwing that in there to add a bit more skepticism for the “Going Dark” theory. A phone that might be locked isn’t the end of the line for investigators, no matter how loudly law enforcement officials sigh during press conferences while gesturing ineffectively at a pile of seized devices.

As we always knew would happen, Stingray technology would soon shift from its more limited, “higher cause” deployment into just another tool for rote policework.

Filed Under: ice, immigration, privacy, stingrays, tracking, warrants