In this Feb. 9, 2017, file photo provided by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE agents stand outside a home in Atlanta during a targeted enforcement operation aimed at immigration fugitives, re-entrants and at-large criminals living in the country illegally. (AP)
WikiLeaks this week published a database containing personal data on more than 9,000 current and former employees of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a report said.
“This information is an important public resource for understanding ICE programs and increasing accountability, especially in light of the extreme actions taken by ICE lately, such as the separation of children and parents at the US border,” WikiLeaks wrote in a description of the data, the Washington Post reported.
The database contains LinkedIn profiles, photos, educational backgrounds, agency personnel, and the employees’ base of operations, among other information – an unusual move for a group that has gained notoriety for publishing classified material.
WikiLeaks said it obtained the database from Sam Lavigne, a New York City-based artist and computer programmer, who also claimed to be an adjunct professor at New York University.
"As ICE continues to ramp up its inhumane surveillance and detention efforts, I believe it's important to document what's happening, and by whom, in any way we can."
Lavigne reportedly tried to publish the information on GitHub, but the website took it down, Fox News reported. He then published a blog post about the database on Medium, but the website reportedly removed that post as well.
"As ICE continues to ramp up its inhumane surveillance and detention efforts, I believe it's important to document what's happening, and by whom, in any way we can," Lavigne wrote.
The WikiLeaks data disclosure was the latest in a series of incidents where ICE employees have been targeted in retaliation for the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy of prosecuting and separating immigrant families caught illegally crossing the border.
Developer Sam Lavigne, who claims to be an adjunct professor at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, created a database on GitHub revealing ICE agents’ names scraped from LinkedIn. (LinkedIn)
Trump has since canceled the separations with an executive order, as lawmakers in Washington work to prepare new proposals for immigration policy.
On Tuesday, a group of protesters chased Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen out of D.C.-based Mexican restaurant, and on Wednesday the left-wing news website “Splinter News,” published what they claimed was White House Aide Stephen Miller’s phone number.
The website called Miller, “the most effective driving force behind the implementation of the brutal policy that is now leading the national news.”
Numerous protesters have gathered outside ICE offices across the country as well. In Portland, Ore., on Wednesday hundreds of protesters surrounded the local ICE office, blocking the entrance and forcing the agency to suspend operations through Thursday.
“Wherever ICE agents dare to show their faces, they must be challenged and shamed for carrying out this fascist policy,” said the left-wing group Occupy ICE PDX, in a Facebook post.
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