ICE Spy Vans are on U.S. Streets, Using Cell‑Tower Vehicles for Mass Phone Surveillance

In a contract quietly awarded earlier this year, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) purchased a fleet of vehicles equipped with cell‑site simulators — devices that work as cellphone towers to intercept and track phones in their vicinity.

ICE has used a ubiquitous surveillance technology to locate, arrest, and deport undocumented immigrants in the US in recent years, using the “Stingray” hacking device that lets them disguise themselves as cell phone towers. The devices are loaded onto vans to target suspects even when they’re not known or suspected of a crime.

What makes this alarming is not just that ICE is acquiring these high‑tech tools, but how they work:

• The vehicles emit signals that trick nearby phones into connecting, forcing them to reveal their unique identifiers (IMSI/IMEI), signal strength, and sometimes even intercept calls, texts, or data.
• Even devices belonging to innocent bystanders can be swept up indiscriminately, since the simulators act as “fishing nets” across an area.
• Agencies using such gear often operate under secrecy, tied by nondisclosure agreements that bar revealing device capabilities or deployment details — even in court.

This widespread deployment raises grave Fourth Amendment and due process concerns. How many Americans’ phones, movements, and communications are being swept up without knowing or without oversight?

A TOSV executive declined to share details about the vendors supplying the cell‑site simulators, citing “trade secrets.” Meanwhile, ICE did not explicitly confirm whether every deployment is backed by a judicial search.

The ICE contract — worth more than $825,000 for a single batch and more than $1.6 million in combined purchases — was granted to TechOps Specialty Vehicles (TOSV). This Maryland‑based firm integrates the surveillance hardware into mobile platforms.

StingRays are mobile wiretaps

These devices are better known by names like “StingRays” or “IMSI catchers,” and have been in use — sometimes controversially — by various federal, state and local law enforcement agencies for over a decade.

In 2024, analysis by WIRED and the Electronic Frontier Foundation flagged likely use of a cell‑site simulator at the Democratic National Convention, triggering outrage and privacy alarms.

In Carpenter v. United States, the Supreme Court ruled that the government needs a warrant based on probable cause to access a person’s historical cell-site location information (CSLI), concluding that obtaining this data constitutes a Fourth Amendment “search.” The government’s warrantless acquisition of a person’s cell-site records violate their Fourth Amendment rights.

The Court reasoned that cell phone location data is highly revealing about a person’s life and movements, and the “third-party doctrine”—which allows for warrantless access to information voluntarily shared with third parties—does not apply here because CSLI is automatically and continuously generated by carrying a phone, not voluntarily disclosed. 

Why this matters now

This latest ICE procurement means surveillance is becoming more mobile, covert, and harder to detect. Once confined to fixed installations or specialized teams, this gear is now mobile, integrated into so‑called “spy vans” rolling through neighborhoods.

The next time you see a disguised “bookmobile” or “ice cream truck” hovering around a protest, ICE is probably listening in on your calls. This highlights the importance of carrying a burner phone to a protest.

Read A Burner Phone is Your Invisibility Cloak at a Protest.