A federal watchdog agency warned Tuesday that immigration judges increasingly face doxing attacks under President Donald Trump.
Bad actors are spreading “sensitive” material about judges in ways that could intimidate them as officials struggle to address the growing problem, according to a Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General report. The investigation adds the DOJ-appointed judges to a growing list of officials facing doxing threats in response to Trump’s mass deportation efforts.
Immigration courts, working under the DOJ’s Office for Immigration Review, often have the final say on approving deportations, asylum claims, and other matters.
“In these incidents, individuals gathered publicly available but sensitive information about the immigration judges from disparate sources and published that information in a manner that could be used for intimidation or other purposes,” the inspector general’s office found.
The DOJ defines doxing as “the act of gathering, by licit and illicit means, and posting on the Internet personal identifying information (‘PII’) and other sensitive information about an individual, including, for example, addresses, dates of birth, social security numbers, telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, credit information, employers, and details regarding the individual’s children and other family members.”
The immigration office is trying to address the problem with “a privacy and data removal service to try to remove as much of the judges’ personal information as possible from the Internet,” the report said. However, DOJ leadership is largely unprepared to deal with doxing and other issues caused by “Ubiquitous Technical Surveillance” targeting the government, the inspector general inquiry found. The immigration office admitted that “such incidents require a coordinated response from the Department,” according to the report.
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Activists have repeatedly attempted to dox Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents working in states such as Oregon and California, sometimes leading to criminal charges.
The Trump administration allows ICE agents to wear masks en masse over safety concerns, a policy that has led to court challenges between the federal government and Democrat-led states. The Treasury and State Departments also sanctioned an Italy-based group in August for providing digital platforms that leftists use to publish doxing materials on ICE personnel, among other anti-government tactics.
Additionally, 10 to 15 FBI agents received “harassing and threatening” messages and home visits after anti-ICE rioters stole records with officials’ personal information from FBI vehicles in January, according to a federal complaint charging a related defendant. Two others pleaded guilty to federal crimes for threats stemming from the same document thefts, court records show.