Immigration and Customs Enforcement is fast tracking a $100 million domestic surveillance program that would place 142 intelligence agents in more than two dozen cities and the District of Columbia. Contracting and surveillance experts described the plan as a significant expansion of the agency’s ability to reach into private lives.

The program is called Enforcement and Removal Operations Overwatch and National Security Enforcement, or ERO ONE. Federal procurement documents published last month describe agents analyzing classified and unclassified information to identify trends, patterns, relationships, threats, and intelligence gaps.

A statement of work published September 18 says the agents would prepare briefings for Enforcement and Removal Operation missions. A forecasting document published one week earlier said the solicitation would likely be released December 10, and contracting experts said the timeline suggests an award around February.

“It looks dangerously like the construction of an internal spying agency,” said Jay Stanley, senior policy analyst with the American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. “It’s a nightmare in the making.”

Intelligence experts warned that the program could be used against undocumented immigrants and others, including political enemies. Former military intelligence analyst Michael Wriston spoke with the Prospect as news broke that the Trump regime had raided progressive Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar’s Washington home.

“You’d expect to see more of this” under ERO ONE, Wriston said. He added, “Not just necessarily sitting members of Congress, but anyone, and especially members of the immigrant community. No one is safe. No one.”

The plan does not specify what or whom ICE intends to find with its expanded capability. One element alarming former intelligence contractors is the proposed analysis of classified and nonclassified information to produce “network, link and relationship” assessments.

That work can involve investigating a target and everyone connected to that person, including household members, relatives, friends, acquaintances, and coworkers. Contractors would assess relationships among individuals, organizations, locations, events, activities, data points, and other entities.

They would also examine reported or potential relationships, recurring patterns, organizational structures, associations, geographic connections, and other links relevant to an intelligence assignment. The resulting products could include link charts, network diagrams, timelines, written assessments, and analytical summaries for ICE.

Wriston said military intelligence agents perform the same kind of research, a job he previously held. He called its arrival at ICE an “imperial boomerang,” comparing the methodology with practices used for years in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, and Syria.

Federal documents do not identify the specific information sources that agents would review. They do require every agent to hold an active top secret clearance and be eligible to access Sensitive Compartmented Information, although the agents would not decide what ICE should do with their findings.

Wriston questioned why ICE needs the program when Homeland Security Investigations already researches targets and conducted the raid on Omar’s home. His immediate concern is that ERO ONE could help the government locate frightened immigrants hiding at home because they believe they are safe there.

ICE plans to deploy the 142 agents and two project managers to Atlanta, Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, Dallas, Washington, Denver, Detroit, El Paso, Harlingen, Houston, Laguna Niguel, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, New York, Newark, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Paul, and Williston.

Brian Murphy, a government contractor who worked for 25 years with ICE parent agency DHS, said the rapid schedule indicates the administration wants to use the program immediately. He said government contracts rarely require only workers holding top secret clearance unless an urgent need exists.

Murphy said the program’s broad description suggests ambitions beyond targeting immigrants. He warned that intelligence could be directed toward people whose identities or views the Trump regime opposes, while the government can redefine who qualifies as a threat and generate data supporting that shift.

He pointed to Homeland Threat Assessments, noting that Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf identified white supremacist extremists in 2020 as “the most persistent and lethal threat in the Homeland.” By last year, that threat appeared only once in a glossary, while the report emphasized administration priorities including immigrants crossing the Mexico border and transnational criminal organizations.

Stanley noted that immigration agencies already use extensive surveillance tools, including Stingray cell tower simulators, automatic license plate readers, cellphone location tools, Mobile Fortify, ImmigrationOS, and data purchased from LexisNexis. Experts said ERO ONE could draw on that information and additional sources to reach deeper into private lives.

Procurement specialist Diana Brozi said ICE already knows its potential bidders and was unlikely to hold an industry day. DHS did not respond to a request for information or comment about claims that ERO ONE could be used to spy on political enemies.