Civil Liberties Defense Center has filed a major new challenge to ICE’s authority. On September 3, 2025 our client received a notification from Meta that they had been served by ICE with a subpoena seeking extensive personal information related to our client’s Facebook and Instagram accounts. ICE, an immigration enforcement agency, does not have the authority to conduct independent criminal investigations, and especially not of a US citizen suspected of non-immigration related crimes. Our client runs Stopice.net, a website that tracks and monitors ICE activity and is one of six people named in the subpoena.

While constitutionally concerning on its own, what makes this case different is ICE’s use of an “administrative subpoena” in an attempt to obtain information way outside ICE’s authority. In the world of subpoenas there are two types, those issued by lawyers, judges and courts related to a pending legal action, like a trial or major hearing, and those issued by agencies like the IRS or ICE. An administrative subpoena, sometimes called an “agency subpoena,” is ordinarily used by the agency to conduct business. For example, the IRS doesn’t need to go to a court and ask a judge for a warrant to conduct a tax investigation, they can just issue a subpoena for information directly because Congress has granted them that authority.

ICE has agency subpoena power. They are well within their rights to use an administrative subpoena to seek immigration-related information for use in an immigration proceeding. That is not what is happening here. ICE is trying to obtain our client’s information for use in a criminal investigation, and that is a major problem. ICE is not a criminal law enforcement agency. They enforce immigration law, a process that utilizes the civil immigration court system. A criminal law enforcement agency would be the FBI, the ATF or one of the many, many federal law enforcement agencies tasked with this mandate. This subpoena is an attempt by ICE to expand their power well beyond the scope of what Congress intended when the agency was created.

CLDC has partnered with the ACLU and, utilizing our legal network, we have helped find representation for each of the 6 people named in the subpoena. CLDC and ACLU each filed separate briefs challenging the subpoena and a judge issued a stay of compliance with the subpoena, meaning Meta is under court order not to turn anything over to ICE until this matter can be heard by the court in November of this year.

KNOW YOUR RIGHTS IF YOU RECEIVE A SUBPOENA NOTIFICATION

Your rights exist, and if you want it to stay that way you need to use them. Remember these best practices for defending your rights when it comes to your online information.

1. Check your inbox
   If you receive a strange notification from Meta or another platform informing you that they have received a law enforcement request for your information, do not ignore it. These messages can be bland and use formal, legal language. Reasonable people can easily mistake these notifications for just another auto-generated spam email, so check twice if something looks strange.
2. Lawyer up
   Contact us at CLDC or another organization local to your area. It can be important to act quickly and the sooner you speak to someone who can help diagnose your legal situation, the more of an advantage you’ll have.
3. You have the right to speak online anonymously
   The government does not have the right to prohibit you from speaking online anonymously. There are obvious exceptions for true threats, defamation and fraud for example, but your rights don’t end at your username.

If you’re unsure of how to proceed upon receiving a subpoena, CLDC has your back. Get in touch with us if you have questions or need legal support.