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ICE sent Sen. Markey evasive letter on protester database, deflecting to unrelated terrorism watchlist

On May 22, 2026, ICE Assistant Director of Congressional Relations John Cooper sent Sen. Ed Markey a letter that deliberately sidestepped Markey's February inquiry about whether ICE maintains a database tracking U.S. citizens who photograph or protest ICE operations. Rather than answering directly, the letter redirected to the interagency Terrorist Screening Dataset, a separate program outside ICE's control and not the subject of Markey's question. ICE applied the same evasion to Rep. Maxwell Frost's parallel oversight inquiry, which Mother Jones reported on July 1, 2026, having obtained both letters.

Jurisdiction
Federal
Location
Washington, D.C.

Abuses documented

Actors

On May 22, 2026, ICE Assistant Director of Congressional Relations John Cooper sent Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) a letter responding to Markey's February 2026 oversight inquiry about whether ICE maintains a database tracking U.S. citizens who photograph or protest ICE enforcement operations. Rather than answering that specific question, the letter redirected to the Terrorist Screening Dataset (TSDS) — an interagency watchlist for known or suspected terrorists that is administered outside ICE and was not the subject of Markey's inquiry. The letter marked the first time ICE had publicly referenced the TSDS in response to questions about protester tracking. Mother Jones, which obtained both the Cooper letter and ICE's parallel response to Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL), reported the evasion on July 1, 2026.

The deflection to the TSDS came against a backdrop of ICE's public and congressional denials about protester data collection. At a February 2026 congressional hearing, acting ICE Director Todd Lyons had testified, "There is no database for protesters, sir." ICE issued a blanket statement to media throughout the period asserting "There is NO database of domestic terrorists run by DHS." However, in an April 2026 letter to Rep. Frost and eleven other Democratic members — obtained by NPR — Lyons acknowledged that ICE collects "essential biographic and biometric information" on individuals at protests where alleged criminal conduct was suspected, and retains records on people who were never arrested or detained. The Cooper letter to Markey did not acknowledge that collection policy, instead redirecting congressional attention to an unrelated terrorism watchlist.

Updates

2026-07-01 — Markey and Frost called ICE responses "attempts to evade oversight" [1]

On July 1, 2026, Senators Markey and Frost sent a new joint letter to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin and Acting ICE Director David Venturella, characterizing the agency's responses to their inquiries as "attempts to evade congressional oversight" and pressing for direct answers about whether ICE maintains or accesses any systems tracking U.S. citizens engaged in First Amendment-protected protest activity.

Why we recorded this

Congressional oversight is a constitutional mechanism for checking executive power: members of Congress have the authority to demand information from federal agencies and expect responsive answers. When ICE sends a senator a letter that redirects a specific inquiry about its own protester surveillance programs to an entirely unrelated interagency terrorism watchlist, it does not merely decline to answer — it actively misleads Congress about whether the questioned program exists. This entry records a deliberate evasion of lawful oversight at a time when ICE was simultaneously issuing blanket public denials that any protester database existed, while an April 2026 letter to other members acknowledged collecting and retaining data on protesters who were never arrested.

Sources

  1. ICE Finds a New Way to Dodge Congress About a Secret Protester Database — Mother Jones primary accessed July 1, 2026
  2. ICE denies having a protester database. But a letter to Congress sheds more light — NPR investigative accessed July 1, 2026

See also