You Have the Right To Record ICE

THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION believes you don't have the right to record Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in public. This stance is both factually wrong and an attempt to chill free speech by conflating it with violence.

- C.J. Ciaramella

At a July 2025 press conference in Tampa, Florida, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem said, "Violence is anything that threatens them and their safety, so it is doxing them, it's videotaping them where they're at when they're out on operations, encouraging other people to come and to throw things, rocks, bottles."

In September 2025, DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin called "videotaping ICE law enforcement and posting photos and videos of them online" a form of doxing. She added, "We will prosecute those who illegally harass ICE agents to the fullest extent of the law."

These aren't idle threats. The Trump administration strong-armed Apple into removing an app from its mobile store that tracked ICE activity and threatened criminal investigations into its creators.

The most aggressive application of this policy has come in Chicago under "Operation Midway Blitz," where ICE officers have relentlessly targeted protesters, reporters, and clergy engaged in protected First Amendment activity.

In October, a group of journalists and protesters filed a lawsuit alleging "a pattern of extreme brutality in a concerted and ongoing effort to silence the press and civilians."