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takyon writes:

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."

Original Submission