A Border Patrol whistleblower has exposed what internal documents describe as a sweeping and largely hidden Immigration and Customs Enforcement surveillance effort that targets not only immigrants but also American citizens, casting routine migration as a national security threat while embedding intelligence gathering deep inside detention operations.
The disclosures were shared by an “outraged” Border Patrol official with investigative journalist Ken Klippenstein, who reported that the files reveal “the dizzying scope” of ICE activities under the Trump administration. According to the documents, ICE operations increasingly frame every unauthorized border crossing as a potential act of terrorism or transnational crime, a shift that critics say is designed to justify aggressive enforcement and expanded surveillance powers.
One nationwide campaign detailed in the leak is known internally as Operation Abracadabra. Documents describe a central objective of the operation as “tying every individual who crosses the border illegally to a foreign terrorist organization [or a] transnational criminal organization.” The language suggests a systematic effort to erase distinctions between immigration violations and terrorism, effectively treating all undocumented migrants as security threats.
Another operation, code-named Benchwarmer, outlines how ICE gathers intelligence far beyond standard interrogation practices. A document describing the program states that, in order to “collect...
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