According to WIRED, internal records obtained through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests contain hundreds of allegations of misuse of law enforcement databases by United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) employees and contractors — including federal agents querying data to look up romantic interests, monitor family members, expose personal information, and in some cases provide intelligence to suspected smugglers or drug-trafficking organizations.
What the internal records show
WIRED reported that the records, acquired from CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) and the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General (OIG), span allegations made from 2009 through 2022. Among the almost 300 data-related entries identified by WIRED, alleged misconduct includes a CBP officer who used government databases to contact a flight attendant, and another officer accused of pulling information from trusted-traveler applications to ask people out. Other CBP employees were accused of providing border-crossing data to someone involved in a “heated divorce.”
WIRED also documented a DHS employee who allegedly used controversial ad-tech-derived location data to track several coworkers’ cell phones — described by WIRED as the first known internal abuse case involving DHS use of ad-tech-derived mobile location data.
How allegations were processed
At the time the allegations were made, complaints involving CBP personnel were initially routed through the Joint Intake Center, which has since been renamed the CBP Intake Center, and the Joint Intake Case Management System, which CBP and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) still use for case tracking, according to WIRED. Analysts decided whether each allegation should be retained for information, referred to an employee’s manager, or assigned to OPR investigators as potentially serious misconduct.
Of the almost 300 data-related entries WIRED identified:
| Disposition | Number of entries |
|---|---|
| Referred to CBP management for review | 138 |
| Assigned to OPR criminal investigators | 78 |
| Classified as “Information Only” (no OPR investigation) | 43 |
| Misconduct allegations sent for management review | 12 |
| Logged as “Law Enforcement Records” cases | 3 |
| Logged as “Immediate Management Actions” | 2 |
| Logged as an administrative inquiry | 1 |
Broader surveillance context
WIRED noted that as immigration and border authorities expand their surveillance through facial recognition, license plate readers, mobile-device searches, and commercially purchased location information generated by ordinary apps, the records highlight how US residents can be — and have been — targeted by federal government employees with access to highly sensitive data and powerful tools. According to CBP, digital surveillance tools are supposed to help officers screen travelers and investigate crimes more efficiently; the records, however, show how sensitive data collected for law-enforcement purposes was weaponized against private individuals.
Accountability and advocacy response
Laura Rivera, an attorney with Just Futures Law, a civil and immigration advocacy legal organization, told WIRED:
Customs and Border Protection has a long history of impunity and abuse of people's civil and human rights. Accountability for their wrongdoing has been elusive, and the dynamic involving the abuse of data is simply another aspect of that. As our society adopts more AI, data collection, and surveillance tools, each of us becomes increasingly vulnerable.
The 2009–2022 dataset, according to WIRED, shines light on what officers did with the access they already had prior to gaining even more access.
Sources:
