U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) paid $825,000 earlier this 12 months to an organization that manufactures autos geared up with numerous applied sciences for regulation enforcement, together with pretend cellphone towers generally known as “cell-site simulators,” which can be utilized to spy on close by telephones.  

In line with public information, the award dated Might 8 “offers Cell Web site Simulator (CSS) Automobiles to help the Homeland Safety Technical Operations program” and is a modification for “extra CSS Automobiles.”  

The contract was signed with TechOps Specialty Automobiles (TOSV), a Maryland-based firm. TOSV additionally signed the same contract with ICE in September 2024 for $818,000, exhibiting that the connection between the company and the corporate predates the Trump administration.  

TOSV president Jon Brianas informed TechCrunch in an electronic mail that he couldn’t present particulars in regards to the ICE contracts and the autos, citing “commerce secrets and techniques.” However Brianas did verify that the corporate does present cell-site simulators, though it doesn’t make them. 

“We don’t manufacture electrical, comms, and know-how parts, we combine that product into our total design of the automobile,” mentioned Brianas, who declined to say from the place TOSV sources its cell-site simulators.  

That is the most recent federal contract that reveals a number of the applied sciences powering the Trump administration’s deportation crackdown. 

In early September, Forbes discovered a just lately unsealed search warrant that confirmed that ICE used a cell-site simulator to trace down an individual who allegedly was a part of a legal gang in america, and who had been ordered to go away the nation in 2023. Within the article, Forbes reported that it additionally discovered a contract for “cell website simulator autos,” however the article didn’t title the corporate that gives the vans to the company. 

Cell-site simulators additionally go by the title “stingrays” as a result of a number of the earlier sorts of these units, made by protection contractor Harris (now L3Harris), have been named that method. Since then, stingrays have grow to be a catch-all title for such a know-how, also referred to as IMSI catchers. (IMSI stands for Worldwide Cell Subscriber Id, a singular quantity that identifies each cellphone consumer on this planet.) 

Because the title suggests, cell-site simulators instruments can mimic a cellphone tower, tricking each cellphone in its close by vary to hook up with the gadget and thus giving regulation enforcement the power to raised establish the real-world location of these telephones and their homeowners.  

Some cell-site simulators can even intercept common calls, textual content messages, and web site visitors. 

Authorities can get information from conventional cellphone towers to search out the present or previous location of a suspect, however the location is normally not very exact.  

Stingray-like units have been in use by regulation enforcement for greater than a decade and have lengthy been controversial as a result of authorities don’t all the time get a warrant for his or her use, and critics say these units ensnare harmless folks by default. These units are additionally shrouded in secrecy, as a result of the regulation enforcement businesses who use them are below strict non-disclosure agreements to not reveal how the units work. 

ICE has an extended historical past of utilizing cell-site simulators. In 2020, paperwork obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union confirmed that ICE deployed them no less than 466 occasions between 2017 and 2019. The company used these instruments greater than 1,885 occasions between 2013 and 2017, in response to paperwork obtained by BuzzFeed Information on the time. 

ICE acknowledged TechCrunch’s request for remark, however didn’t reply to a collection of questions, which included: what ICE makes use of these autos for, whether or not and the place they’ve just lately been deployed, and whether or not the company all the time will get a warrant when utilizing cell-site simulators.  

From surveillance vans to bookmobiles 

Headquartered simply exterior of Washington D.C., TOSV sells a variety of customizable autos to regulation enforcement, akin to vans for SWAT armed response groups, bomb squads, and so-called “cellular lab” and “cowl surveillance” autos.  

Amongst these autos for police forces, TOSV lists a number of “tasks,” together with one described as DHS Cell Forensic Labs, referring to the Division of Homeland Safety. 

In line with the web site, these cellular forensic vans are “geared up for on-site forensic evaluation and documentation,” have “safe compartments for proof preservation and investigative instruments,” and allow “seamless case file updates and proof logging.” 

One other undertaking is the DHS Cell Command Van,” which TOSV says it’s “configurable for superior surveillance and mission coordination.”  

It’s unclear if these vans are the identical autos that embrace cell-site simulators, as there’s no point out of the cellphone surveillance software anyplace on TOSV’s web site.  

ICE has different contracts with TOSV for cellular forensic labs, which don’t specify what applied sciences are positioned within the vans. 

In line with its web site, TOSV additionally sells so-called “bookmobiles,” which seem like libraries on wheels, in addition to medical, and hearth division autos.