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The acting head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says that the agency does not use cell-site simulators, aka IMSI-catchers or "StingRays", to locate undocumented immigrants:
The acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the federal agency charged with deportations, has confirmed in a new letter that it does not use cell-site simulators, also known as stingrays, to locate undocumented immigrants. In the August 16 letter, which was sent to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), acting Director Thomas Homan wrote that, since October 2015, ICE has followed similar guidelines put in place by the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security a month earlier, which require a warrant before deploying a stingray.
[...] The Homan letter makes a point though to say that "interference with non-targeted mobile devices is virtually nonexistent."
As he continued:
The mobile identifier of non-targeted mobile handsets is verified by the cell-site simulators automatically as a non-target and sent back to the best mobile network. This process is conducted in an amount of time that is not noticeable to the user. If a call is placed or received during the exact instant the verification is taking place, interference may result. The equipment software has provisions to allow a captured device one currently engaged by the cell-site simulator to return to the host network if the captured device initiates a call. In all circumstances, devices are always able to dial 911 without any disruption of service.
This description is curious given that a Friday warrant application, filed by an FBI agent in a drug case in Wisconsin, describes "service disruption" to phones that aren't targeted by the stingray as being "brief and temporary."
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 21 2017, @02:14PM (4 children)
Please, let's use our collective minds. With how easy it is to identify and find illegal aliens (aka undocumented workers), why would ICE go through the trouble of purchasing, getting training for and using a StingRay? Really. I can find a couple dozen illegal aliens by just driving through the local Home Depot or Lowe's parking lots, or going to a few fast food restaurants. And ICE has much more relevant info on where large populations of illegal aliens live and work. The need for a StingRay is almost zero.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Monday August 21 2017, @02:24PM (2 children)
The better question is how does one tell an undocumented persons phone from a citizens?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 21 2017, @03:24PM (1 child)
No habla Ingles.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Monday August 21 2017, @03:52PM
That almost makes sense until you realize that there are plenty of spanish speaking citizens. Then again, they could be trained to pick out mexican accents. But I still see it as a waste of time when they can just wait by main roads and home improvement centers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 21 2017, @08:31PM
Because I've got this budget here that I need to spend because if I don't, my budget for next year gets cut. And I can't think of anything to spend it on but lo, there's this friendly salesperson here that sells StingRays so I guess I'll spend the money on that. And now that I have these things, he says I can pull all sorts of shenanigans with them so why not.
You've never had a budget to 'balance'(*), have you?
(*) In your favor, that is...