WASHINGTON — Thirty-five House Democrats have demanded answers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) over reports that the agency used local police to gain backdoor access to Flock Safety's nationwide license-plate surveillance network, Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi's office said. Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) and Congresswoman Brittany Pettersen (D-CO) led 33 other lawmakers in a letter to Acting ICE Director David Venturella, demanding information about whose movements ICE has been tracking, how the information has been used, and what legal authority permits the surveillance, according to the lawmakers' statements.

Source: Office of Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, Oct. 2026

Recent reporting uncovered more than 4,000 searches of Flock camera data by state and local law enforcement for federal authorities or potential immigration enforcement purposes, and described how ICE obtained access through local police despite having no formal contract with Flock governing that access, both offices said. Flock's automatic license-plate readers record vehicle locations, allowing law enforcement to search camera networks and track individuals' movements across communities and state lines, the lawmakers said. Those figures and claims are the lawmakers' account, based on the reporting they cited; ICE's response has not been published in the sources used for this story.

Source: Office of Rep. Brittany Pettersen, Oct. 2026

“ICE's use of local police as a backdoor to access Flock's license plate cameras and secretly track Americans' movements is an outrageous abuse of power,” Krishnamoorthi said, adding that the administration “cannot use local law enforcement to circumvent the Fourth Amendment and evade accountability,” and asking whether anyone has been detained or arrested as a result. Pettersen said reports that ICE is using local police “to track people's movements is terrifying” and that “ICE does not get a blank check to spy on families and communities,” according to the two statements.

Source: Offices of Reps. Krishnamoorthi and Pettersen, Oct. 2026

In the letter, the lawmakers write that “the ability of federal agents to access vast quantities of location tracking data, without judicial authorization and without public disclosure, constitutes an unprecedented intrusion into the privacy of the general public, and must be explained immediately.” They requested responses by November 20, 2026, to seven questions, including how many times an ICE agent obtained Flock data directly or through state or local partners, for what purpose, what internal policy governs such use, whether ICE has reviewed the practice for compliance with federal privacy protections, the Fourth Amendment or Department of Homeland Security policy, and whether ICE intends to formalize a contract with Flock or another plate-reader vendor, the letter text published by Pettersen's office shows. Krishnamoorthi previously introduced the bipartisan NO FLOCK Act with Congressman Michael Cloud, his office said.

Source: Letter text published by Rep. Pettersen's office, Oct. 2026