The Trump Administration is considering a nationwide intelligence operation to bolster Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deportation efforts, with $100 million plans to deploy more than 140 specialists to analyze classified and unclassified information from locations across the country, federal procurement records show. The proposed program, known as Enforcement and Removal Operations Overwatch and National Security Enforcement (ERO One), would provide intelligence and analytical support to ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) division. ICE anticipates needing approximately 142 Intelligence Research Specialists and two project managers at headquarters and designated field locations across the country, the records show.
A spokesman for ICE told Newsweek that "due to the exponential increase of threats and violence against personnel, ERO is now operationalizing the Overwatch program." Supporters say ERO One would give immigration officers greater intelligence support to identify enforcement targets, assess public safety threats and improve officer safety. Critics, however, warn that ICE's ability to analyze sensitive information could significantly expand the agency's domestic surveillance capabilities. The notice says the specialists would conduct work including all-source analysis, threat and trend analysis, and network and relationship analysis.
Newsweek has listed the locations identified by ICE in the procurement documents and the planned distribution of intelligence specialists across the country. They include Atlanta, Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, El Paso, Harlingen, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, New York City, Newark, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Paul, Washington, D.C., Williston, Vermont, and Laguna Niguel, California.
The largest allocations listed in the documents are 15 specialists at Potomac Center North in Washington, D.C.; 12 at the National Criminal Analysis and Targeting Center in Williston, Vermont; 12 at the Law Enforcement Support Center in Williston; and nine at the Pacific Enforcement Response Center in Laguna Niguel, California. The remaining positions are distributed among ICE areas of responsibility around the country. According to the Statement of Work, specialists would research and analyze information from authorized sources, identify trends, patterns, and relationships, assess threats and intelligence gaps, and prepare intelligence products and briefings.
The work may involve information from multiple classified and unclassified sources, as well as law-enforcement sensitive information, personally identifiable information, operational information, and other protected government information. The procurement documents say contractor personnel could be required to hold Top Secret clearances and be eligible for access to Sensitive Compartmented Information. One part of the proposal calls for "network, link, and relationship analysis." The Statement of Work says specialists would conduct research to identify and assess relationships among individuals, organizations, locations, events, activities, data points, and other entities relevant to established ERO intelligence requirements.
Analysts could examine known, reported, or potential relationships, recurring patterns, organizational structures, associations, and geographic or temporal connections. The document says contractors would provide analytical support only and would not have authority to make final decisions on investigations, targeting, enforcement, detention or other government actions. Those decisions would remain with government officials.
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