ICE Agents Accused of Falsely Claiming Observers Break Law

Legal experts say monitoring and recording ICE activities is protected under the First Amendment

Published on Feb. 23, 2026

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Federal immigration officers are routinely lying to people watching and tracking them, alleging they're violating federal law, with legal experts clapping back that the vast majority of community observers are simply exercising their constitutional rights. Dozens of people have reported incidents where ICE agents falsely claimed they were impeding federal investigations while engaging in perfectly lawful behavior such as observing officers, recording them, following at a safe distance, and even shouting at them.

Why it matters

This issue highlights ongoing tensions between immigration enforcement and civil liberties, with the ACLU suing the Trump administration over these alleged First Amendment violations. Courts have repeatedly thrown out charges against observers, but the tactics are seen as a form of "gross intimidation" to deter people from monitoring ICE activities.

The details

In one incident, a Minneapolis-area woman named Jess was detained for 8 hours and had her car window smashed after agents claimed she was violating the law by tracking their movements, even though she said they never got in front of the vehicles, honked, or made any noise. Legal experts say observing officers, recording them, following at a safe distance, and even shouting at them are all constitutionally protected activities.

  • In February 2026, the reported incidents occurred.

The players

Jess

A Minneapolis-area woman who was detained for 8 hours and had her car window smashed by ICE agents who falsely claimed she was violating the law by tracking their movements.

Scarlet Kim

A senior staff attorney with the Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project at the ACLU, who stated that the vast majority of the activities the government is claiming are interfering or obstructing are actually engaged in perfectly lawful conduct.

Will Stancil

A civil rights attorney who experienced "gross intimidation" firsthand when three ICE vehicles surrounded and escorted him home.

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What they’re saying

“We followed at a distance. We never got in front of them. We never honked our horns. We never made any sort of noise. We were just keeping an eye on them.”

— Jess (NPR)

“A lot of the activities that the government is claiming are interfering or obstructing, in the vast majority of those examples, they're engaged in perfectly lawful conduct.”

— Scarlet Kim, Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project (NPR)

“These tactics are "gross intimidation".”

— Will Stancil, Civil Rights Attorney (NPR)

What’s next

The ACLU is suing the Trump administration over these alleged First Amendment violations, and courts have repeatedly thrown out charges against observers of ICE activities.

The takeaway

This case highlights the ongoing tensions between immigration enforcement and civil liberties, with legal experts arguing that monitoring and recording ICE operations is a constitutionally protected activity, despite claims by federal agents that such actions are illegal. The ACLU's lawsuit aims to curb what it sees as a pattern of intimidation tactics used to deter public oversight of immigration enforcement.