Something like this makes me wonder if Anonymous is still around, or if we have a major hacker on ‘our’ side, because this is something they definitely didn’t want to happen. Now, we won’t be able to tie the information to anyone on the streets because they’re masked, but starting with this, it may not be too long before someone will. Now, I do not condone the use of violence. This data dump is a 50-50 thing. I wouldn’t like to have my identity splashed all over, but then again, I don’t work for CBP or ICE. So. The feelings and opinions are mixed. Thank you for the jump-off, Raw Story:
A Department of Homeland Security whistleblower has released the identities of about 4,500 ICE and Border Patrol employees Tuesday in what has been called potentially the largest agency data breach for the department. The killing of 37-year-old mother Renee Nicole Good by ICE agent Jonathan Ross last week in Minneapolis has prompted the leak of personnel data to the ICE List, an online database created to promote accountability by the masked federal agents, according to a report from The Daily Beast. The onslaught of national outrage reportedly led to the major leak.
Whoa now. Someone from *within* leaked. That’s almost better than Anonymous (almost). It was led by national outrage. We should have gotten to this point months ago, say, when the LA Protests happened. But we didn’t, and we had TWO ‘No Kings’ protests, the second much bigger than the first (and the first wasn’t exactly small!), and now even *more* protests. Then this site showed up. (I did go check it out and could not get past the cover page, even with unlimited data, but it definitely exists!) Why couldn’t we have reached this point before people were abused, and Renee died?
“It is a sign that people aren’t happy within the U.S. government, clearly. The shooting [of Good] was the last straw for many people,” Dominick Skinner, ICE list founder, told The Beast. Information included in the new leak includes around “1,800 on-the-ground agents and 150 supervisors. Early analysis by the organization suggests that around 80 per cent of the staff identified remain employed by DHS,” according to The Beast. The first batch of names was slated to be posted on the site on Tuesday night.
Oof. This could be both helpful and worrisome. Helpful in that these people might see their names and straighten up their acts. Worrisome in that everyone could be looking at each other twice, wondering if their neighbor or friend belonged to either organization. I don’t want to do that. I hope no one else does, either. We’re all smarter than that. It seems so straightforward when you look at it. Data dump of names. Identification of employees. But it isn’t that simple.
Members of the public have reportedly also shared information about agents in hotels and even neighbors. “I’ve had hotel staff sending post-it notes, bar staff sending DHS IDs, and loads of people saying their neighbour is an agent,” Skinner said. Skinner told the outlet he was working to verify the names. “ICE and CBP are in clear need of reform, and I believe working for either is a bad move on a moral level,” he added.
It *still* isn’t that simple. What about the people for whom this is the only job that they can get? Let me clarify. Admin people. The agents on the streets are power-hungry, idiotic, severely undertrained, fat bullies. Those made the nasty choice. But others might not have. Others might have been desperate. So, there’s much more to it. Nevertheless, if this is the start of the way to get the egotistical assholes to stand down, even one or two is better than nothing. It would be a start. Yet, one last time, it really *isn’t* that simple.
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I have to say this worries me. This is pure doxxing and plays right into Team Trump’s hands. It’s wrong and when you think of all the data Elon’s DOGE Boyz collected (stole) the retaliation could be awful. Not to mention if they hold back and someone vandalizes the home of an agent or worse harasses their kid(s) at school and it gets caught on tape this could backfire spectacularly by generating sympathy for these thugs who don’t deserve an ounce of it.
So, from where I sit this was a dumbass idea. Then again since it came from inside the govt. it might have been ordered by Team Trump. It’s hard to believe the personal who leaked this didn’t have the ability to release personal identifying info on far more than 4,500 people.
Let me be clear. I don’t have a problem with getting the word out that a given hotel is putting up ICE personnel. I love people make noise and shining bright lights at the windows and if non ICE guests decide to find rooms somewhere else and the hotel’s bottom line takes a hit that’s fine by me. I don’t even mind back in their neighborhoods acquainances figuring out the dude down the street is one of those people they see on TV that inflicts cruelty. Or their fellow church goers etc. I draw the line at their kids being drawn into it. We can pick our friends but not our family, a bitter lesson I grew up with and have had to deal with my entire life. But friends and neighbors ‘outing’ them in their neighborhoods isn’t doxxing in my book unless names addresses and phone numbers get posted on social media. That too crosses a line that shouldn’t be crossed.
This is why I kept repeating “it isn’t that simple”, because it isn’t. And this is why I’m torn. I couldn’t get to the list on the site to see exactly what’s there after multiple tries. If I ever *do* I’ll write a follow-up article. It could go wrong so easily.
I want to hold them accountable but I’m not at all sure this is the right way. The vast majority will blow this off anyhow. Yet if it gives even one person the way to look at themselves and decided to get out of it, that’s something. It’s a really big gray area – how much is too much?
Those ICE dickheads have found out their own privacy is a perception, and their security is a state of mind. Both their perception of privacy and state of security have turned into one big ‘pffffttt you!’ – it was bound to happen and not at all surprising, eh!
*Something* was bound to happen but this was a *complete* surprise. Take a look at Denis’s comment and my reply. It’s a tough call, and what he says brings more light into this. I’m just not sure if there *is* any other way to make them sit up and take notice.
I appreciate your balanced view on this. It’s not something often seen and it shows intelligence and care.
Re those “admin people:” one of the most revealing and damning truths to emerge from the exposure of Nazi atrocities was that all those trains to Auchswitz were kept running on time by faceless ‘normal’ people working in offices.
My thought exactly.