The RecordExhibit 126
Logging people who watched ICE arrests into a federal case database
Pending means: In court or under criminal investigation right now.
During a January 2026 immigration operation in Maine, federal agents told people recording them that they were being added to a database or a domestic terrorist watchlist. A court filing partly unsealed on Oct. 2 says an agent did enter observers into a Homeland Security case system.
What happened
Elinor Hilton and Colleen Fagan sued in federal court in Maine on Feb. 23, 2026, in a proposed class action. It says the Department of Homeland Security used tools such as facial recognition and license plate readers to identify observers during 'Operation Catch of the Day', then intimidated them by showing that agents knew their names and addresses, in violation of the First Amendment. According to the complaint, an officer told Hilton that if she kept coming she would be on a domestic terrorist watchlist. The filing released in redacted form on Oct. 2, first reported by Wired, says agents drove past observers' homes and that one agent logged at least six observers into Investigative Case Management, a case system built by Palantir, with details such as photos and license plate numbers. One label quoted from the records: 'Threat to Law Enforcement, Professional Protestor.' The case now has four plaintiffs.
Where it stands
The case is in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine, and in the reporting we found the judge has not ruled on the merits. The plaintiffs are asking the court to stop DHS from collecting records on people for First Amendment activity and to expunge the records already made. In March 2026, according to the Portland Press Herald, a Homeland Security attorney acknowledged in court that agents acted improperly when they told two women they would be put in a domestic terrorist database, and said no such database exists. A separate ACLU lawsuit over the treatment of observers and protesters in Minnesota ended differently: on Sept. 18, 2026, Judge Katherine Menendez dismissed it, ruling that the end of Operation Metro Surge left the plaintiffs without standing to seek limits on agents' future tactics.
The administration's side
DHS calls the lawsuit meritless and says it runs no database of 'domestic terrorists'. In a court filing its lawyers said the agents' statements were contrary to a department policy that bars personnel from profiling or targeting people over First Amendment activity. Todd Lyons, then ICE's acting director, wrote to a congressman in April that ICE 'does not maintain any kind of database of U.S. citizens protesting ICE activities.'
Sources
Permanent link: https://unredactedrecord.com/e/observers/