California officials announced plans on Monday to launch a website tracking Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in Los Angeles.
During a press conference alongside Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) revealed the new platform would come as part of an investigation he is leading on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. In conjunction, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) is leading a similar investigation into ICE on the Senate side through the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
“Over the course of the next couple of weeks, the Oversight Committee will be launching on their website a master ICE tracker where we’re going to be essentially tracking every single instance that we can verify that the community will send. You’ll be able to send us information on. It’ll be all available in one central place, and you’ll be able to look up that information as it relates to Los Angeles as well,” Garcia said.
His plans to create a “master” ICE tracker probing the agency’s movements in California’s most heavily populated area will likely trigger surveillance from the Department of Justice.
The Trump administration has threatened to prosecute makers of ICE tracking apps. Earlier this month, Apple took down such an app after being requested to do so by the Justice Department. Last week, the DOJ asked Meta to take down a Facebook page being used to track the presence and reveal the identities of ICE agents conducting deportation operations in Chicago.
Garcia’s latest efforts to track ICE come partly in response to concerns that federal agents are targeting people for detention and deportation due to their race. Over 7,100 people in the Los Angeles area suspected of being illegal immigrants have been arrested since June, the DHS said this week.
Garcia pointed to a ProPublica report released last week that indicated around 170 U.S. citizens have been arrested by the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE.
“Why? Because they look like me, because they are of Latino origin, or because they are suspected to not be a U.S. citizen, or because they are suspected of crimes that they have not committed,” the California Democrat said Monday.
Garcia encouraged residents to record ICE’s movements in the Los Angeles area and report the information to the Oversight committee as he prepares to launch the website to track its activity more comprehensively. The public will be able to upload videos and other information to the new platform, which officials plan to launch within the next few weeks.
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“If they are able and safe to record what is happening, we encourage them to communicate that to local groups on the ground, elected officials, and offices, they can communicate the information with,” he said.
Garcia also revealed he plans to hold a congressional field hearing in Los Angeles for Angelenos to attend and testify on immigration enforcement concerns. A date has not yet been set, although the congressman said it was coming “sooner rather than later.”
