DHS using WhatsApp groups and undercover informants for intel

An
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent outside of the
home of a suspect, March 30, 2012.
Gregory Bull/AP

• The Department of Homeland Security is reportedly using
  paid undercover informants to gather intelligence on the
  migrant caravan nearing the US-Mexico border.
• Homeland Security officials were said to be monitoring
  the migrants through the WhatsApp text messaging app, which is
  being used as a communication tool for the roughly 4,000
  migrants.
• The exact cost of the program was unclear, but one
  Defense Department source estimated the cost of paying
  informants and analyzing their intelligence to be thousands of
  dollars.

The Department of Homeland Security is reportedly using paid
undercover informants to gather intelligence on the migrant
caravan nearing the US-Mexico border, according to multiple

news
reports.

Homeland Security is also monitoring the migrants through the
WhatsApp text messaging app, which is being used as a
communication tool for the roughly 4,000 migrants, two department
officials told NBC News. Officials are said to have joined the
migrants’ WhatsApp groups to monitor communications, many of them
from Honduras and seeking asylum.

Through their intelligence-gathering efforts, officials received
word that a group of migrants may be bolting through car lanes
near the San Diego border in California. The Customs and Border
Protection agency reportedly shut down an entire section of lanes
at the border crossing between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m., but the
crossing never occurred.

AP
Photo/Rodrigo Abd

It was unclear whether the agency’s measures affected the migrant
group’s purported plans.

The exact cost of the program was unclear, but one Defense
Department source estimated the cost of paying informants and
analyzing their intelligence to be thousands of dollars,
according to Newsweek.

In a statement, Homeland Security spokeswoman Katie Waldman cited
security concerns and did not discuss specific methods of
gathering intelligence.

“While not commenting on sources or methods, it would be
malpractice for the United States to be ignorant about the
migrants — including many criminals — attempting to enter our
country,” Waldman said, according to NBC News. “We have an
obligation to ensure we know who is crossing our borders to
protect against threats to the Homeland and any indication to the
contrary is misinformed.”

On Monday, a federal judge blocked President Donald Trump’s move
to curb the number of asylum-seeking migrants who cross the
US-Mexico border at ports of entry. White House and Homeland
Security officials have warned that hundreds of people from the
caravan pose a national security threat, a description that was
previously
contradicted by the Defense Department’s own risk assessment.