The acting head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told lawmakers he bought and used spyware made by Paragon Solutions in drug trafficking cases, according to a letter seen by TechCrunch.
Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons wrote in the letter to three congressmen that he approved the agency’s criminal investigation unit, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), to use “cutting-edge technological tools” to counter the “prosperous exploitation of encrypted communications platforms by foreign terrorist organizations,” in reference to spyware.
The inability of law enforcement to access encrypted data has often been cited as justification for the need to use computer and mobile phone spyware in major criminal cases, as it can capture a person’s data directly from their device. Critics and human rights advocates have long pointed to the growing list of journalists, politiciansand members of civil society whose phones have been hacked by governments using commercial spyware.
In the letter, Lyons said that ICE’s use of spyware would “meet constitutional requirements” and that he “certified that HSI’s operational use of the specific tool does not pose significant security or counterintelligence risks, nor significant risks of misuse by a foreign government or foreign person.”
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Bloomberg first reported The letter from ICE to members of Parliament.
By 2024, ICE signed a contract with American-Israeli spyware maker Paragon Solutions, a deal that was suspended immediately by the Biden administration to determine whether it complied with an executive order which restricts US agencies from using spyware that could be used to attack Americans abroad or violate human rights.
In September 2025, ICE lifted the blockade and reactivated the contract. However, until now it was unclear whether ICE had planned to use Paragon spyware.
The spyware maker has been embroiled in a wide-ranging scandal in Italy, where journalists and pro-immigration activists were revealed having been attacked with Paragon’s Graphite spyware last year. In response, Paragon prevented Italian intelligence agencies from using its spyware tools.
When reached for comment, Democratic Rep. Summer Lee, one of the researchers who had requested information from ICE, told TechCrunch that the agency is now moving forward “with invasive spyware technology within the United States.
The lawmaker added that “rather than responding to the serious constitutional and civil rights concerns we raised, DHS is asking the public to accept vague assurances and fear-based justifications.”
“People most at risk, including immigrants, Black and Brown communities, journalists, organizers and anyone who speaks out against government abuses, deserve more than the secrecy and deflection of an agency with a long history of overreach and abuse,” Lee said.
Paragon and ICE did not respond to a request for comment and questions from TechCrunch about the agency’s use of spyware.
