DHS calls leaks a threat. Here’s what we wouldn’t know without them

The Department of Homeland Security secretary calls leakers a threat to national security and wants to prosecute them.

But much of what the public knows about DHS, which includes its agencies Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, is thanks to whistleblowers and leakers who have exposed the government’s increasingly unlawful conduct as it aggressively enforces immigration law across the country.

In recent months, a series of major investigations into DHS, ICE, and CBP have relied on insiders who provided documents and information to journalists. Journalists, in turn, published what the public would otherwise never see.

Here are just a few recent examples of the journalism that leaks have made possible:

ICE claims the power to enter homes without a judge’s warrant

In January, The Associated Press reported on an internal ICE memo instructing officers that they could forcibly enter people’s homes to make arrests without a warrant signed by a judge. Instead, the memo claimed that an administrative warrant — issued by the executive branch and never reviewed by a court — is sufficient.

The news story was based on a whistleblower complaint sent to Congress and shared with the AP by an anonymous congressional official. The complaint and memo were later made public.

Because of this reporting, based on a leak, the public learned of a major constitutional violation. ICE is reversing its own past practices and training materials, which had long instructed officers that a judicial warrant was required to enter a home.

Yet, as one legal expert noted, challenging ICE’s new interpretation of the law in court could be difficult, because courts have made it so hard to sue federal officers for violating constitutional rights. That makes public scrutiny one of the few tools available to challenge ICE’s claim that it can knock down your door without a warrant. And that scrutiny is possible only because of a leak.

DHS is labeling protesters “domestic terrorists.”

Journalist Ken Klippenstein has repeatedly exposed internal DHS activities using leaked government documents. One of his most recent revelations shows that DHS has labeled American citizens who protest against ICE as “domestic terrorists.”

According to documents leaked to Klippenstein, ICE branded a Portland, Oregon, man, Chandler Patey, and “countless other American protesters” as domestic terrorists based on minimal and dubious evidence. (The unsubstantiated rumor that Patey is the leader of antifa — whatever that even means — was started by a right-wing influencer, for instance.)

The leaks also revealed a DHS-wide portal that aggregates personal information about alleged terrorists, including protesters, allowing authorities to centralize surveillance of them.

Without sources willing to leak these documents, the public would have no idea that DHS is transforming constitutionally protected activity into domestic terrorism.

ICE’s expanding surveillance state, built with big tech

Some of the most detailed reporting on ICE’s surveillance infrastructure has come from leaks and information via confidential sources provided to outlets like 404 Media and Wired, which have exposed how major tech firms are helping build ICE’s spy tools.

404 Media, for instance, recently relied on internal ICE materials to report about a tool developed by Palantir for ICE called “Elite.” Elite helps ICE decide what neighborhoods to raid by mapping the addresses of people targeted for deportation, using sensitive personal information from agencies like the Department of Health and Human Services. 404 Media even published a copy of an internal Elite user guide.

Similarly, Wired relied on confidential sources to report that the Department of Government Efficiency was working on a “master database” in April 2025 to help DHS track and surveil undocumented immigrants, built on Palantir software and stitched together from vast pools of government data. Experts warned of sweeping privacy violations affecting not only those who are undocumented, but citizens, too.

ICE’s propaganda machine

In addition to exposing DHS’s tactics and surveillance, leaks have also revealed how the government is working to shape public perception. In December 2025, The Washington Post reported on ICE’s internal “media machine” using leaked chats and other documents from within the agency.

Those messages showed ICE officials coordinating with the White House to push propaganda celebrating immigration arrests, mocking immigrants in private chats, and selectively curating videos and images to fit a political narrative. They illustrated how ICE is manufacturing and distributing content to flood the internet with its own propaganda and overwhelm independent sources of information.

While many believed, based on what they could see online, that the government was pumping out propaganda, these leaks confirmed it and gave the public inside information about how it operates.

Protect the whistleblowers who make this possible

These are just four examples of journalism — based on leaks — that have been essential to informing the public about America’s growing surveillance state.

These stories share a common thread: Without whistleblowers and leakers, the public would never know how DHS is breaking the law and abusing our civil rights and civil liberties.

So the next time DHS talks about cracking down on leaks, or the government actually prosecutes a whistleblower, think about all you wouldn’t know without leakers. If the government succeeds in silencing leakers and whistleblowers, it won’t make us safer. It will only help the powerful operate in the dark, without accountability.