A Long Beach man who developed an app that tracks immigration agents’ activity said Friday that his information has been subpoenaed by federal officials.
The subpoena centers around a social media post that Sherman Austin shared on Sept. 2. As Austin’s post showed a Border Patrol agent apparently conducting an immigration enforcement operation in Long Beach., it also shared by five others as collaborators.
Austin maintained he did nothing wrong as he claimed he only shared public information, but federal authorities said in the subpoena directed at META, the parent company of Instagram, that a post he and others shared “doxed” an agent.
Doxing involves publishing private or identifying information.
The post also showed photos and videos of the unmasked uniformed agent as well as information about the agent’s previous employment at a police department, his home town, his city of residence and his name — along with the headline “warning: suspected kidnapper/terrorist.”
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) wrote the subpoena was in reference to “Officer Safety/Doxing” as doxing, which is illegal in California, can cause victims reasonable fear for their safety.
But Austin said none of the information was private.
“It’s basically information that was copied from other public resources like the Border Patrol website,” he said.
Austin’s attorneys have filed a motion to quash the subpoena, seeking to have it aside because, they said, it violates the first amendment. They also said the motions of two other social media users named in the DHS subpoena were recently granted.
Tricia McLaughlin, the DHS assistant secretary for public affairs, told NBC Los Angeles, “(We’re) not sure if you saw the recent attacks on our Dallas facility.” She referred to the incident from Wednesday when a gunman opened fire at an ICE facility, killing a detainee. Investigators said he was targeting federal employees.
Austin said he was not trying to encourage anyone to be violent or do anything illegal with the social media post.
“I’m just encouraging people to incite their first amendment right, and we all have a right to do that.”
Investigators said the gunman in the Dallas attack used an app to track ICE prior to the shooting — similar to Austin’s creation.
Advocates said platforms as Austin’s should be protected as public-interest speech.
“That is protected speech at the highest rung of first amendment protection,” David Greene from the Electronic Frontier Foundation said. “You are providing truthful information about matters of public interest to the public. There should not be legal consequences to that.”
Federal officials have long warned that web-based tools can endanger law enforcement and enable evasion. Attorney General Pam Bondi also publicly claimed some apps “encourage people to avoid law enforcement” while DHS leadership has labeled them obstruction.
Austin insisted that he was operating the app legally, and his social media posts that share the videos uploaded to his app are protected speech.
“I think they are trying to make people scared, and they are trying to use whatever means they can to try to intimidate people who speak out against these ICE raids that are going out in the community,” he said, adding he’s worried about the possibility of being arrested by federal agents because of the app.
“I think the threat of retaliation by the federal government is real,” he said.
NBC Los Angeles reached out to the Justice Department and META for comment on the subpoena but did not hear back as of Friday.
Source: NBC Los Angeles
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