DHS says ICE has ‘no relationship’ with spy ware maker Paragon : NPR

Immigration and Customs Enforcement reactivated a beforehand paused contract with spy ware maker Paragon Options final yr, which raised questions on whether or not the company was utilizing industrial spy ware to remotely hack into cell telephones and if the deal complied with a 2023 government order.

However now the Division of Homeland Safety says ICE has no present contract or relationship with the Israeli-founded firm, which is finest recognized for making a spy ware device referred to as Graphite that can be utilized to remotely infiltrate units and entry encrypted messages with out targets needing to click on a hyperlink.

“ICE has no relationship with Paragon Options, Inc. or with the corporate that acquired them,” DHS mentioned in an announcement to NPR.

ICE first entered right into a contract with the U.S. subsidiary of Paragon Options in 2024 for an unspecified product. However the Biden administration swiftly put the contract on maintain to determine whether or not it complied with a 2023 government order barring federal companies from buying industrial spy ware that poses a big safety danger to the U.S. or danger of misuse by international governments.

Governments have focused opponents with spy ware

Overseas governments have repeatedly used industrial spy ware to spy on political rivals, journalists, human rights staff and different members of civil society. American politicians and officers have additionally been focused, which prompted the Biden administration to take steps to push again on the trade.

Paragon Options’ Graphite device was central to a authorities spying scandal in Italy that first got here to mild early final yr after Meta-owned WhatsApp discovered some 90 customers of its messaging app, together with journalists and activists, had been focused with Graphite in numerous nations.

Researchers at The Citizen Lab on the College of Toronto and Italian prosecutors have confirmed Italian journalists and activists had been amongst these focused with Graphite. Paragon Options instructed the Israeli newspaper Haaretz in June 2025 that it ended its contract with Italian intelligence companies after Italian authorities declined the corporate’s assist to find out whether or not the device had been used towards a journalist.

Paragon Options’ founders embrace former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak.

In late 2024, Israeli media reported that an American non-public fairness agency, AE Industrial Companions, had acquired Paragon Options to merge it with REDLattice, a cybersecurity firm managed by the identical agency.

Then, final August, underneath the Trump administration, ICE reactivated the Paragon Options contract. In response, Democratic lawmakers despatched DHS a sequence of questions in regards to the contract and ICE’s use of spy ware.

However a discover on the Paragon Options contract on a federal procurement web site says the contract was closed out Jan. 20.

“ICE has not entered one other contract with Paragon Options, Inc,” DHS instructed NPR in an announcement. The division declined to make clear whether or not or not ICE nonetheless has entry to Paragon-developed instruments, corresponding to by way of a 3rd celebration.

Neither REDLattice nor AE Industrial Companions responded to requests for touch upon Friday.

ICE has acknowledged utilizing spy ware

The information of the terminated relationship between ICE and Paragon Options comes after ICE’s departing appearing Director Todd Lyons responded to questions from Democratic lawmakers in an April 1 letter through which he acknowledged he had authorised ICE’s Homeland Safety Investigations crew to make use of a industrial spy ware device in its efforts to disrupt international terrorist organizations and fentanyl traffickers.

“In response to the unprecedented lethality of fentanyl and the exploitation of digital platforms by transnational felony organizations, I authorised HSI’s procurement and operational use of cutting-edge technological instruments that tackle the precise challenges posed by the Overseas Terrorist Organizations’ thriving exploitation of encrypted communication platforms,” Lyons wrote.

His letter mentioned he had licensed that use of the device was in compliance with the 2023 government order on authorities use of economic spy ware.

When NPR requested DHS if ICE brokers nonetheless had entry to Paragon-developed instruments or the device that Lyons referenced in his letter, the division supplied an announcement saying: “DHS is just not going to substantiate or deny regulation enforcement capabilities or strategies. Beneath President Trump, ICE is utilizing all lawful instruments to take away harmful felony unlawful aliens from the U.S.”

DHS declined to reply a query asking if ICE is utilizing a unique spy ware vendor.

Privateness advocates say questions nonetheless loom over authorities surveillance

The rising arsenal of surveillance know-how that ICE brokers are utilizing to trace immigrants in addition to protesters has raised alarm amongst privateness and civil liberties advocates.

Advocates instructed NPR they nonetheless had questions on the best way to interpret DHS statements about its terminated relationship with Paragon Options, particularly on condition that it stays unknown if the company can entry the corporate’s instruments.

“It is promising that they are not re-upping the contract instantly,” mentioned Maria Villegas Bravo, an legal professional with the nonprofit Digital Privateness Info Middle. “I am all the time cautious of vaguely worded non-association statements, although.”

Julie Mao, deputy director of Simply Futures Legislation, which is suing underneath the Freedom of Info Act for entry to information related to ICE’s Paragon Options contract, referred to as DHS’s newest statements “a half measure and a pink herring,” given Lyons’ letter final month acknowledging use of a industrial spy ware device.

“If it isn’t Paragon spy ware, then what firm and spy ware does ICE use? And the way does ICE use it?” Mao instructed NPR in an e-mail. “The company ought to present a full account of its surveillance applied sciences to the American public.”