The Brief

Immigration and Customs Enforcement is using spyware tools that can intercept encrypted messages as part of the agency's efforts to disrupt fentanyl traffickers, according to a letter sent last week by the agency's acting director, Todd Lyons.

Lyons' letter, which was reviewed by NPR, said ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) is using various tools as part of its mission to disrupt and dismantle foreign terrorist organizations "particularly those involved in the trafficking of fentanyl."

Lyons wrote "in response to the unprecedented lethality of fentanyl and the exploitation of digital platforms by transnational criminal organizations" he approved HSI's "use of cutting-edge technological tools that address the specific challenges posed by the Foreign Terrorist Organizations' thriving exploitation of encrypted communication platforms."

His letter, dated April 1, was a belated response to an October inquiry from three Democratic members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform expressing concern about the agency's potential use of the spyware Graphite, which was created by an Israeli company, Paragon Solutions.

The letter is the first time ICE has indicated it is using Graphite. The agency initially signed a $2 million contract with Paragon Solutions for an unspecified software product at the end of the Biden administration. But the contract was swiftly paused until it was revived by the Trump administration last fall.

Graphite uses what is known as "zero click" technology so that it can gain access to encrypted messages on a targeted device even if the user never clicks on a link.

The encrypted messaging app WhatsApp disclosed last year that it discovered some 90 journalists and members of civil society in various countries were targeted with Graphite. Researchers at The Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto's Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy later identified specific journalists and humanitarian aid providers in Italy whose devices were infected with Graphite through WhatsApp messages. Paragon ended its contract with Italian government agencies in 2025.

Lyons' confirmation that the agency is using spyware comes as ICE has ramped up its use of surveillance technologies to find people in the U.S. without authorization as part of the Trump administration's mass deportation campaign. Those tools have also been used extensively on American citizens who have protested ICE's activities. The revelation also comes shortly before Congress is set to debate whether to reauthorize a surveillance law, and whether to close a legal loophole that allows the federal government to buy data about millions of Americans in bulk from commercial data brokers.

Rep. Summer Lee, D-Pa., one of the authors of the October letter asking for answers about ICE's use of spyware, told NPR in a statement, "The response I received from ICE makes one thing clear. They are moving forward with invasive spyware technology inside the United States."

Lee expressed disappointment that Lyons did not provide substantive answers to her questions, including who could be targeted with the technology and the legal basis for using it within the United States.

"The people most at risk, including immigrants, Black and brown communities, journalists, organizers, and anyone speaking out against government abuse, deserve more than secrecy and deflection from an agency with a long record of overreach and abuse," Lee's statement said.

Lyons' letter said any use of the tool "will comply with constitutional requirements" and will be coordinated with the ICE Office of the Principal Legal Advisor.

The Paragon Solutions' contract was initially put on hold in 2024 to review its compliance with an executive order then-President Joe Biden signed in 2023 that bars the use of commercial spyware that poses a national security risk to the United States or poses a risk to be misused by foreign governments.

Lyons wrote in his letter that in accordance with the 2023 executive order, he had "certified that HSI's operational use of the specific tool does not pose significant security or counterintelligence risks, or significant risks of improper use by a foreign government or foreign person."

Paragon Solutions was purchased by an American private investment firm AE Industrial Partners in late 2024, which merged with the cybersecurity company REDLattice. Neither AE Partners or REDLattice returned NPR's request for comment.

Lyons' response alarmed civil liberties advocates who worry about the potential for ICE to abuse the tool and use it against targets beyond drug traffickers and terrorists.

"The biggest concern now is that Lyons' response doesn't rule out ICE using an administrative subpoena to deploy this malware against people living in the United States as part of their ideological battle against constitutionally protected protest," said Cooper Quintin, senior staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which advocates for digital privacy.

"An extremely invasive surveillance capability such as this should require the strongest judicial oversight and confirmation that such intrusion is necessary and [a] proportionate response to the crime being investigated," Quintin said.

Maria Villegas Bravo, a lawyer with the nonprofit Electronic Privacy Information Center, said the U.S. does not have sufficient regulations in place "to stop the U.S. government from abusing Constitutional and human rights in the process of using this technology."

In response to an NPR inquiry to the Department of Homeland Security about its use of Graphite and the concerns raised, a DHS official who did not identify themselves wrote, "DHS is a law enforcement agency. ICE is no different. Employing various forms of technology in support of investigations and law enforcement activities aids in the arrest of criminal gang members, child sex offenders, murderers, drug dealers, identity thieves and more, all while respecting civil liberties and privacy interests."

Villegas Bravo said that by paying for Graphite, the U.S. is helping to bolster the market for technologies that are being exploited by foreign governments to undermine the privacy of messaging applications and carry out invasive surveillance of phones.

"This is a grave national security risk because it weakens American critical infrastructure, including our telecommunications networks," Villegas Bravo said.
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The U.S. war with Iran has pushed inflation to its highest level in almost three years.

Consumer prices in April were up 3.8% from a year ago, according to a report Tuesday from the Labor Department. That was the biggest annual increase since May 2023.

Prices rose 0.6% between March and April.

From gas prices to housing, here are three things to know about the rising cost of living.

Gas prices are a big driver

Gasoline prices have jumped sharply since the war began, snarling tanker traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital corridor for energy shipments. The average price of regular gas is $4.50 a gallon, according to AAA. That's up 38 cents from a month ago. The jump in energy prices accounted for 40% of the monthly increase in the consumer price index in April.

Rising fuel costs are affecting other prices as well

When energy costs jump sharply, it can have spillover effects. Air fares, for example, jumped 2.8% last month and are more than 20% higher than they were a year ago, as airlines struggle with a spike in jet fuel prices.

The cost of diesel fuel has risen by $1.88 a gallon since the war began. If that lasts, it could put upward pressure on the price of everything that's delivered by truck or train.

Excluding volatile food and energy costs, "core" inflation was 2.8% in April.

Housing prices also contributed to higher inflation in April

Housing costs were also a driver of inflation, jumping 0.6% between March and April, but some of that is a statistical fluke resulting from the six-week government shutdown last fall. Government number-crunchers were temporarily idled in October, so were unable to collect housing prices that month. That's had the effect of artificially lowering the measure of housing inflation. Tuesday's report provides a kind of catch-up.

Copyright 2026 NPR

The Los Angeles World Cup host committee has quietly posted its guidance on human rights after months of speculation over where the plan was and when it would be published.

Advocates had pushed the committee, an arm of the Los Angeles Sports & Entertainment Commission, to produce its plan. But now that it's out, they're not satisfied with what they're seeing.

The human rights guidance is required by FIFA and outlined on the host committee's website. It includes a list of online resources including where to file complaints with various local and state level agencies and a summary of local, state and federal laws protecting human and civil rights. The committee is also touting a partnership with L.A. County in which people can call 211 to report a concern during the tournament.

"Los Angeles is weeks away from hosting one of the largest sporting events in the world, and yet what has been posted is not a plan,” Stephanie Richard, director of the Sunita Jain Anti‑Trafficking Initiative at Loyola Law School, said in a statement. “It is a list of laws and hotline numbers."

The human rights document also skirts fears around ICE and its potential presence at the tournament and surrounding celebrations. Todd Lyons, the agency's head, said earlier this year that ICE's investigatory branch will play a key role in security for the tournament.

But ICE and immigration enforcement aren't mentioned on the host committee's web page on human rights or in its outline of its approach to human rights. "Immigration status" only gets a mention in the list of existing anti-discrimination laws.

"It certainly could have been much stronger," Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights in Los Angeles, said of the plan. She added that her organization participated in a roundtable on the plan, and she was disappointed ICE and recent immigration sweeps weren't mentioned in the resulting document.

"In order for all of this to happen, immigrant workers are part of it," she said of the World Cup. "Your hotel workers, your service workers, stadium workers, drivers." 

LAist reached out to spokespeople for the host committee for comment via email, phone and text, but did not hear back in time for publication. FIFA's press team also did not respond to an email from LAist.

According to the host committee's website, the human rights plan is the result of coordination with the city and county of Los Angeles, the city of Inglewood, and 14 roundtable discussions held in the fall of 2025.

"As a non-profit organization, the Host Committee’s role is primarily and necessarily focused on aligning and collaborating with governmental and non-governmental organizations," the document sums up the committee's approach.

The plan also promises more actions, including "Know Your Rights" training for L.A. residents and visitors and "Know Your Responsibilities" training for businesses and vendors. The committee also says it will develop a "rapid response" strategy to respond to potential problems at the tournament.

Available details on those plans were scant. And with the tournament just 30 days away, labor unions and community groups are continuing to voice concerns about potential ICE presence at SoFi Stadium and other potential consequences of the tournament coming to town.

In 2019, Xiaoman Ding was diagnosed with a pituitary tumor in her brain that caused her debilitating headaches. At times, she couldn’t open her eyes or walk.

So while she was detained at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center after being arrested at an immigration courthouse in Santa Ana last June, she made repeated requests for medical treatment. Instead of getting the normal medications she took to manage her symptoms, she said she received Tylenol and ibuprofen.

By July, her pain became so “unbearable” she told a nurse at the detention center she wanted to take her own life. The facility placed her in solitary confinement for three days for monitoring.

“I never told anyone that I experienced suicidal thoughts again,” she said in court documents that form part of a federal lawsuit filed in January by a private law firm and immigrant right' group seeking to improve conditions at the facility. “I was afraid that I would be put into solitary confinement.”

The case continues to make its way through the court system. The next hearing is scheduled for late May.

In declarations accompanying the lawsuit, detainees shared their experiences in isolation. Many of them said they were placed in solitary confinement after asking for things that are essential for their dignity — or to fight their case in court. Others said the confinement made them reluctant to ask for help in the future.

How detention centers isolate detainees

About 2,000 immigrants are currently being held at the ICE detention center in Adelanto. The site is run by The GEO Group, a private prison operator.

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Across the country, immigrant detention centers like Adelanto are holding more people in solitary confinement than under previous administrations — including President Donald Trump’s first term. Immigration and Customs Enforcement data also shows that detainees are being isolated for longer periods of time, and experts say solitary confinement can worsen the conditions of people who need support.

People in custody can be placed in “segregation,” as it is dubbed at these centers, for numerous reasons. These can include disciplinary issues, as well as claims by facility officials that the move is needed to protect detainees who could be harmed if left among the general population. People in detention can also be put in segregation if they are on suicide watch, if they’re experiencing a “serious mental or medical illness” or for staging a hunger strike.

Detainee advocates say isolation is also being used to punish immigrants in civil detention.

The “threshold to use solitary is often quite low and arbitrary,” said Katherine Peeler, an assistant pediatrics professor at Harvard Medical School and medical advisor with Physicians for Human Rights. The nonprofit publishes reports on solitary confinement at immigrant detention centers, rooted in public records, ICE data and testimony from detainees.

Some 2,000 immigrants are currently held at the Adelanto detention center, about 90 miles northeast of downtown L.A. in San Bernardino County. An LAist analysis of the most recent ICE data found that, ranked by percentage of the detainee population in segregation, this site is among the top 10 facilities in the United States.

How segregation can make medical issues worse

To get a sense of what immigrant detainees experience in segregation, Peeler asks the public to envision confinement.

“You are contained in a small cell, usually the size of a parking space,” she said. “Imagine being in a parking space and enclosing it all the way . . . You can't get out. You can't change the temperature.”

“The inability to control your environment, as well as the lack of contact with other humans, is known in medical literature to lead to great deals of anxiety, depression [and] extreme loneliness,” Peeler added. “People have been known to have hallucinations and agitation, [as well as] reduced cognitive functioning.”

The most recent Physicians for Human Rights report found that, between April 2024 and May 2025, ICE detention centers placed over 10,500 people in solitary confinement — often for more than 15 days. UN human rights experts consider solitary confinement placements that last that much or more to be torture, though the Supreme Court has held that isolation doesn’t violate the Constitution. ICE’s own policies call for “additional steps to ensure appropriate review and oversight of decisions to retain detainees in segregated housing for over 14 days.”

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At least four people have died after being held in custody at an ICE detention facility in Adelanto, California. A recent lawsuit alleges that living conditions there are inhumane, and some compare the facility to "concentration camps."

Rotten food, disease, isolation. What we know about conditions at the Adelanto ICE detention center

At least four people have died after being held in custody at an ICE detention facility in Adelanto, California. A recent lawsuit alleges that living conditions there are inhumane, and some compare the facility to "concentration camps."

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Disability Rights California, a federally mandated nonprofit that advocates for people with disabilities in the state, monitors conditions at immigrant detention centers.

Richard Diaz, a senior attorney at the nonprofit, was part of a team that conducted a site visit at Adelanto last summer. The team found a general lack of accommodations for people with disabilities. Diaz also spoke with a detainee who’d been placed in solitary confinement for over a month. “On top of that,” he told LAist, the detainee “had medical concerns and accommodation needs that weren't being met.”

Peeler noted that solitary confinement is also associated with sleep disruption, which “can lead to further mental health issues.”

Sleep disruption “is also really bad for one's stress response system,” she added. “You can have heightened levels of the stress hormone cortisol. This can lead to problems with hypertension or high blood pressure, and general underlying medical conditions being worsened.”

The federal government denies claims of substandard conditions at immigrant detention centers and declined LAist’s requests for interviews and comments. In statements issued after the recent deaths of detainees, ICE said it is “committed to ensuring that all those in custody reside in safe, secure and humane environments."

In a statement, a spokesperson for the GEO Group, a private prison operator that runs the Adelanto detention center, said: “[O]ur support services are monitored by ICE, including by on-site agency personnel, and other organizations within the Department of Homeland Security to ensure compliance with ICE’s detention standards and contract requirements regarding the treatment and services ICE detainees receive. In the event issues are identified, we quickly resolve all of ICE’s concerns.”

“The support services GEO provides include around-the-clock access to medical care, in-person and virtual legal and family visitation, general and legal library access, translation services, dietician-approved meals, religious and specialty diets, recreational amenities, and opportunities to practice their religious beliefs,” the spokesperson added.

What detainees have to say

People held at Adelanto paint a different picture.

LAist reviewed the detainee declarations filed as part of the January federal lawsuit seeking to improve conditions at the facility. Aside from people experiencing mental health crises and medical issues, multiple detainees at Adelanto described being placed in segregation as a form of punishment.

Andrei Karamychev is a Russian immigrant who came to the U.S. in 1999. In his testimony, Karamychev said that, after arriving at Adelanto last summer, he did not hear anything about his case for two months, “despite asking repeatedly to get information.”

“Many other people in my unit were also upset about not being told the reason for their detention,” he said. “We worked together to get attention to this issue by all yelling together, demanding to see our ICE officers.”

Eventually, Karamychev said, “a bunch of guards showed up and began to take out the people that spoke up, one by one.”

Six of the detainees involved were put in solitary confinement. After a few days in isolation, Karamychev said, “a lieutenant came in to meet with me and told me that I was going to spend two months in solitary because I had fought the officers.”

“This was a lie. I told him that I did not fight the officers, [that] I had just demanded nonviolently to see an ICE officer about my case,” Karamychev said. In response, the lieutenant told him: "We choose our truth."

Karamychev further detailed his confinement: “In solitary, I was under lockdown for about 23.5 hours a day. We had 30 minutes each day outside of our cells. During those thirty minutes, we could go outside for yard time in a cage that is about 10 feet by 10 feet, walk to the microwave to reheat meals, or look at a book.”

“When you are brought out to the mini yard, you are locked out there until the guards decide to let you back in,” he added. “The yard smells like urine because people had to pee out there, and it was not cleaned up. It is difficult because you want to have fresh air, but it smells like urine.”

Julius Omene Fredrick, an immigrant from Nigeria, was taken to Adelanto in January 2025. He has an ongoing application for a U visa, which is intended to give temporary immigration status to crime victims who have cooperated with law enforcement.

According to Fredrick, his unit had six showers for 80 people.

“There are three showers on each side of the room, with a walkway in the middle,” he said. “There are no privacy screens or curtains.”

Fredrick said he asked Adelanto guards for curtains “to give us some privacy.” Instead, he was placed in solitary confinement for seven days.

On another occasion, Fredrick said he was put in isolation for six days after complaining about the lack of access to the law library. Adelanto only allows four people from each 80-person unit to attend the library per day, he said. By Fredrick’s estimation, the library can fit “20 to 15 people.”

“We need access to the library so we can work on our immigration cases,” he explained. “Many of us do not have lawyers, so it is a real problem.”

Saddam Samaan Daoud Samaan, an immigrant from Jordan who had been living in Minnesota for nearly two decades before he was detained, said he was also put in solitary confinement after advocating for more access to the law library.

Throughout the detention center, Adelanto staff have put up posters about “voluntary departure,” Samaan added.

“The posters say that some people will be eligible for over $2,000 and a free flight if they choose to self-deport,” he said. “They even have sign-up sheets where you can write your name down to tell ICE you want to ‘voluntarily depart.’ I've seen them in the dayroom, the chow hall, and the solitary confinement unit. And it works. Being here breaks people.”

When detainees first arrive at Adelanto, they usually tell Samaan “they have support from their family and [and] plan to stick it out here as long as it takes.”

“Then, a month later,” he added, “they decide to sign away their case and leave the U.S. rather than stay at Adelanto any longer.”

The mayor of Arcadia has agreed to plead guilty to a charge she acted as an agent for China, federal prosecutors announced Monday. She has resigned from her position with the city.

Eileen Wang, 58, faces one count of acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The charge carries a potential sentence of up to 10 years in federal prison.

What we know about the criminal case

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Wang and Yaoning “Mike” Sun of Chino Hills worked at the direction of the Chinese government and with individuals based in the U.S. to promote pro-People’s Republic of China propaganda in the United States. Those actions occurred between 2020 and 2022, prosecutors said.

According to federal prosecutors, Wang and Sun operated a website — known as U.S. News Center — billed as a news source for the local Chinese American community in Los Angeles County. They posted content on the site, described as "pre-written articles," based on directives from Chinese government officials.

Sun, 65, pleaded guilty in October 2025 in federal court to acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government. He is serving a four-year federal prison sentence.

Prosecutors also said Wang communicated with John Chen, whom they described as “a high-level member of the [Chinese government] intelligence apparatus,” in November 2021, and asked him to post an article from her website.

In a group chat, Wang referenced the article and wrote: “This is what the Ministry of Foreign Affairs wants to send,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Chen pleaded guilty in New York to acting as an illegal agent of the People’s Republic of China and conspiracy to bribe a public official. In 2024, he was sentenced to 20 months in federal prison.

What's next

Wang, who was elected to the City Council in November 2022, was expected to make her first appearance in U.S. District Court Monday afternoon.

Citing a plea agreement, prosecutors said she's expected to enter the guilty plea within the next few weeks.

Arcadia's mayor is selected from the elected council members. A post on the city's website announced that Wang had resigned her position as of Monday and that a new mayor would be picked from the remaining council members at the next meeting.