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EFF Sues DHS and ICE For Records on Subpoenas Seeking to Unmask Online Critics
Agencies Ignored EFF’s Public-Records Requests Regarding Unlawful Efforts to Locate People Who Criticized the Government or Attended Protests
SAN FRANCISCO
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) sued the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) today demanding public records about their use of administrative subpoenas to try to identify their online critics.
Court records and news reports show that in the past year, DHS has used administrative subpoenas to unmask or locate people who have documented ICE's activities in their community, criticized the government, or attended protests. The subpoenas are sent to technology companies to demand information about internet users who are often engaged in protected First Amendment activity.
These subpoenas are dangerous because they don’t require judges’ approval. But they are also unlawful, and the government knows it. When a few users challenged them in court with the help of American Civil Liberties Union affiliates in Northern California and Pennsylvania, DHS withdrew them rather than waiting for a decision.
DHS and ICE have ignored EFF’s public-records requests for documents about the processes behind these subpoenas, so EFF sued Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
“DHS and ICE should not be able to first claim that they have the legal authority to unmask critics and then run from court when users challenge these administrative subpoenas,” said EFF Deputy Legal Director Aaron Mackey. “The public deserves to know what laws the agencies believe give them the power to issue these speech-chilling subpoenas.”
An administrative subpoena cannot be used to obtain the content of communications, but they have been used to try and obtain some basic subscriber information like name, address, IP address, length of service, and session times. If a technology company refuses to comply, an agency’s only recourse is to drop it or go to court and try to convince a judge that the request is lawful.
EFF and the ACLU of Northern California in February wrote to Amazon, Apple, Discord, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Reddit, SNAP, TikTok, and X to ask that they insist on court intervention and an order before complying with a DHS subpoena; give users as much notice as possible when they are the target of a subpoena, so the users can seek help; and resist gag orders that would prevent the companies from notifying users who are targets of subpoenas.
And EFF last week asked California’s and New York’s attorneys general to investigate Google for deceptive trade practices for breaking its promise to notify users before handing their data to law enforcement, citing the case of a doctoral student who was targeted with an ICE subpoena after briefly attending a pro-Palestine protest.
EFF in early March filed public-records requests with DHS and ICE for their policies, procedures, guidelines, directives, memos, and legal analyses supporting such use of administrative subpoenas. EFF also requested all Inspector General or oversight records, all approval and issuance procedures for the subpoenas, all records reflecting how many such subpoenas have been issued, all communications with technology companies concerning these demands, all communications regarding specific named targets or programs, and all communications with the Department of Justice regarding such subpoenas.
DHS and ICE have not responded, even though EFF requested expedited processing of its requests, which requires agencies to get back to requesters within 10 days.
“The policies, directives, and authorization records governing the program have not been disclosed,” the complaint notes. “The legal basis asserted by DHS and ICE for using a customs statute to compel disclosure of information about persons engaged in constitutionally protected speech and association has not been made public.”
For the complaint: https://www.eff.org/document/eff-v-dhs-ice-administrative-subpoenas-complaint
For EFF’s letter urging tech companies to protect users: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/02/open-letter-tech-companies-protect-your-users-lawless-dhs-subpoenas
For EFF’s letter urging state probes of Google: https://www.eff.org/press/releases/eff-state-ags-investigate-googles-broken-promise-users-targeted-government
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the leading nonprofit organization defending civil liberties in the digital world. Founded in 1990, EFF champions user privacy, free expression, and innovation through impact litigation, policy analysis, grassroots activism, and technology development. EFF's mission is to ensure that technology supports freedom, justice, and innovation for all people of the world.
(415) 436-9333LATEST NEWS
'Call Your Senator': New Iran War Powers Resolution Set for US Senate Vote
“This war has simply been a disaster, and there is absolutely no reason we should go full steam ahead back into it," says Sen. Tammy Baldwin.
Apr 22, 2026
Opponents of the US-Israeli assault on Iran are urging like-minded Americans to call their senators ahead of Wednesday afternoon's expected vote on yet another bid to curb President Donald Trump's power to continue waging his war.
Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) said she will force a vote Wednesday on a war powers resolution "to end Trump’s illegal war of choice in Iran."
“The ceasefire, which is being broken left and right, expires in less than two days, and Congress now must do its job," Baldwin said in a Monday statement referring to Trump's extended truce. "This war has simply been a disaster, and there is absolutely no reason we should go full steam ahead back into it."
TODAY Senate Democrats will force a vote on a War Powers Resolution to assert Congressional authority over Donald Trump’s reckless war in Iran for the FIFTH timeWill Senate Republicans finally step and exercise their constitutional responsibility?Via @warren.senate.gov
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— Senate Democrats (@democrats.senate.gov) April 22, 2026 at 10:16 AM
Baldwin noted Tuesday that 13 US service members "are dead and hundreds more are injured, gas and fertilizer prices are tthrough the roof, and we have already spent an untold amount of taxpayer money—but it certainly is in the tens of billions of dollars."
US-Israeli bombing has also killed or wounded more than 30,000 Iranians, many of them civilians, including hundreds of children, according to officials in Tehran and international organizations.
The National Iranian American Council (NIAC) urged Americans to "call your senator" ahead of Wednesday's vote.
NIAC said that "lawmakers who have defended Trump’s decision to go to war with Iran without congressional approval argue the president can legally wage the conflict for 60 days before needing authorization" under the War Powers Act of 1973, which was enacted during the Nixon administration toward the end of the US war on Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos.
"That 60-day clock is now almost up, just one week remains," the group added. "As that clock winds down, last week’s House and Senate votes make one thing clear: Support for reining in the war is growing, but not yet enough to force action. That leaves members, especially Republicans who have largely resisted these efforts, facing increasing pressure as the legal deadline comes into view."
Baldwin argued Monday that "diplomacy is the only way out of this mess—and that is where every ounce of attention of this administration should be, not threatening to commit war crimes."
Trump's threats have ranged from destroying Iranian power plants and bridges to genocidal destruction of Iran's entire civilization. Threatening to commit genocide and war crimes is a crime.
Baldwin said Monday that "the only question will be whether my Republican colleagues want to own the consequences" of Trump's war "raging on, or they will step up for the American people and put an end to this life-taking, cost-raising chaos.”
Every Republican senator with the exception of libertarian Rand Paul of Kentucky has voted against previous Iran war powers resolutions, the last of which was defeated in a 47-52 vote on April 15, with right-wing Pennsylvania Democrat John Fetterman the only Democrat to vote against the measure.
There have been four failed attempts in the House and Senate to pass Iran war powers resolutions. On Tuesday, Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) said they will try to force a vote next week on yet another such measure.
In addition to Iran, members of Congress have tried—and failed—to pass multiple war powers resolutions limiting Trump’s attacks on Venezuela, whose president was kidnapped during a brief US invasion in January.
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Israel Condemned for Bombing Rescue Workers Trying to Reach Journalist Buried Under Rubble
"Israel treats journalism as a crime," said one Beirut-based editor.
Apr 22, 2026
The Israel Defense Forces were condemned on Wednesday following reports that the IDF dropped a grenade on Red Cross workers as they attempted to rescue a Lebanese journalist believed trapped beneath rubble in southern Lebanon.
Two journalists from the local media outlet al-Akhbar, Amal Khalil and Zeinab Faraj, were attacked by the IDF after arriving to report at the scene of a previous strike that had killed two civilians in a car in the village of Al-Tiri, according to Al Jazeera correspondent Heidi Pett.
The journalists, who were wounded, found that their own car was stuck under rubble from the second strike and that they were unable to leave.
Red Cross workers then spent hours attempting to reach the reporters. But according to the National News Agency (NNA), other Israeli attacks targeted a major road leading to the village "to prevent ambulance teams from reaching the two journalists.”
Faraj was rescued and brought to the hospital, where she is being treated for severe injuries that require surgery. The NNA and other Lebanese outlets reported that as she was transported to the hospital, the Red Cross vehicle came under Israeli fire, leaving visible bullet holes.
While Faraj was evacuated, however, Khalil remained trapped. According to Reuters, the Lebanese army asked the Israeli military to allow rescuers to retrieve her.
Lebanon's president, Joseph Aoun, also urged the Lebanese Red Cross to cooperate with the Lebanese army and United Nations peacekeepers to "carry out the rescue operation in the shortest possible time.”
But as the rescue workers lifted Khalil from the rubble, an Israeli drone dropped a stun grenade on them, believed to be a warning, which forced the workers to withdraw from the town, according to the Lebanese outlet LBCI. The Red Cross is expected to return later to continue the search for Khalil.
A recent profile of Khalil in the Beirut-based Public Source magazine celebrated her more than two-decade career, which began shortly before Israel invaded Lebanon in 2006. Though she resisted the label of "war correspondent," much of her work since 2023 has again focused on covering what she's described as "resistance" to Israeli aggression.
"I always highlight the steadfastness of ordinary people in their border villages, like the farmers who continued tending their land while the Israeli settlements across from them in northern Palestine were empty," Khalil said. "I debunk the enemy’s narrative of targeting only military sites by showing evidence of them bombing homes, farms, and killing children. After the [2024] ceasefire, I also started documenting how the destruction that followed was many times greater than what had occurred during the war itself."
According to Reporters Without Borders, Khalil previously received death threats from an Israeli phone number in September 2024, while she was reporting on the war that broke out between Israel and Lebanon earlier that year.
She received a message reading, "We know where you are, and we will reach you when the time comes." The message concluded, "I suggest you flee to Qatar or somewhere else if you want to keep your head connected to your shoulders."
The deliberate killing of journalists who are civilians constitutes a war crime under international humanitarian law.
The IDF said it was aware of reports that journalists were injured in Wednesday's attacks, but did not confirm them to The Associated Press. The IDF denied that it was preventing rescue teams from reaching the area. The military also said it “does not target journalists and acts to mitigate harm to them.”
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) found that last year was the deadliest year for journalists in the more than three decades since they began collecting data. An unprecedented 129 journalists and media workers were killed on duty last year. Israel was responsible for two-thirds of the press killings in 2024 and 2025, most of whom were Palestinians in Gaza.
Lara Bitar, editor of Public Source magazine, wrote on social media Wednesday that Khalil and her rescuers had come under attack “because Israel treats journalism as a crime.”
Bitar said, "Amal has been tirelessly and lovingly covering communities impacted by war, occupation, and displacement for decades."
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'They Don't Seem to Give a Shit': Trump and GOP Push Food Aid Cuts as Iran War Costs Soar
"It’s disgusting," said Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts. "We ought to be able to end hunger in this country. It's a political condition. We have the money."
Apr 22, 2026
Democratic Rep. Jim McGovern on Wednesday said it is "disgusting" that President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans are pursuing more cuts to federal nutrition assistance for low-income Americans while simultaneously backing a war of choice in Iran that has cost US taxpayers tens of billions of dollars.
"We have 46 million people in this country who are hungry, and they don’t seem to give a shit," McGovern (Mass.) told reporters, warning that Republicans are bent on enacting additional cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in their forthcoming budget reconciliation package. "We ought to be able to end hunger in this country. It’s a political condition. We have the money."
McGovern: SNAP provides about $2 per person per meal. We’re told there are more cuts to SNAP coming in reconciliation. We have 46 million people in this country who are hungry, and they don’t seem to give a shit, and it’s disgusting.
We ought to be able to end hunger in this… pic.twitter.com/Aq1o8L0ZQa
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 22, 2026
McGovern noted that the Trump administration has "spent $60 billion on the war in Iran"—a rough estimate based on analyses indicating that the US is spending around $1 billion per day on the conflict. The Trump administration is also pushing Congress to approve up to $100 billion in new funding for the Iran war.
More broadly, Trump has requested that lawmakers pass a $1.5 trillion military budget for the coming fiscal year—a nearly 50% increase compared to current levels—while pushing for more cuts to healthcare, housing, nutrition, and education programs.
Congressional Republicans, meanwhile, are demanding additional food aid cuts as part of the annual appropriations process, as the unprecedented $200 billion in SNAP cuts they enacted last summer continue to wreak havoc nationwide.
On Wednesday, the GOP-controlled House Appropriations Committee released its funding bill for the Agriculture Department and other agencies. The proposal would significantly underfund the Women, Infants, and Children Nutrition Program (WIC), taking food benefits from around 5.4 million toddlers, preschoolers, and pregnant and postpartum WIC participants, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said the Republican funding bill "cuts grocery vouchers specifically for women, infants, and children" and "pares back assistance for rural communities, slashing water and waste grants and cutting resources to help provide broadband service in rural areas."
"Republicans are willing to increase funding by hundreds of billions of dollars to fight foreign wars," said DeLauro. "But when it comes to supporting American farmers and hungry families, all they can do is cut, cut, cut. The American people deserve better."
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