DHS’s statement to NPR came in response to questions about ICE’s relationship with Paragon Solutions, a company known for developing commercial spyware. In the letter and statements reviewed for this reporting, ICE’s technology use has been a focus of Democratic lawmakers and privacy advocates who argue that federal agencies’ tools should comply with restrictions meant to limit security risks and foreign-government misuse.
NPR asked DHS to clarify what ICE’s relationship is now with Paragon Solutions after a contract that had been paused was described as reactivated late in 2024 under President Trump’s administration, raising concerns about whether ICE was using commercial spyware to access devices or encrypted communications. DHS’s response said ICE has no such relationship at present, and it did not confirm or deny what capabilities ICE may still have through other channels.
DHS said ICE has “no relationship with Paragon Solutions, Inc. or with the company that acquired them,” according to a statement provided to NPR. The department also said ICE has not entered another contract with Paragon Solutions, Inc., after a notice on a federal procurement website indicated that a Paragon Solutions contract was closed out on Jan. 20.
The earlier procurement history described in the reporting shows that ICE first entered into a contract in 2024 with the U.S. subsidiary of Paragon Solutions for an unspecified product, only for the Biden administration to put the contract on hold to review whether it complied with a 2023 executive order restricting federal agencies from purchasing commercial spyware that poses significant security risks or could be misused by foreign governments. While the executive order aimed to curb government purchasing of tools that can be used to infiltrate devices and intercept communications, the questions raised by lawmakers and advocates focused on how ICE’s use would fit within those limits.
The spyware in question, Paragon Solutions’ Graphite tool, has been at the center of previous government-surveillance allegations. The reporting cited researchers at The Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto and Italian prosecutors who confirmed that Italian journalists and activists were among those targeted with Graphite, after WhatsApp identified around 90 users of its messaging app in multiple countries as being targeted with Graphite. The reporting also describes Paragon Solutions telling Haaretz in June 2025 that it ended its contract with Italian intelligence agencies after Italian authorities declined the company’s help to determine whether the tool had been used against a journalist.
The reporting further notes that Paragon Solutions’ founders include former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, and it describes Israeli media reporting in late 2024 that an American private equity firm, AE Industrial Partners, acquired Paragon Solutions to merge it with REDLattice, a cybersecurity firm controlled by the same company. Under that corporate backdrop, the reporting says ICE reactivated the Paragon Solutions contract last August, and lawmakers then sent questions to DHS about the contract and ICE’s use of spyware.
DHS’s latest statements also follow earlier acknowledgments by ICE leadership about using commercial spyware. In an April 1 letter responding to Democratic lawmakers, Todd Lyons, then ICE’s departing acting director, acknowledged approving ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations team to use a commercial spyware tool in efforts to disrupt foreign terrorist organizations and fentanyl traffickers, and he said he had certified that the use complied with the 2023 executive order.
When NPR asked DHS whether ICE agents still had access to Paragon-developed tools or the tool Lyons referenced, the department declined to confirm or deny law-enforcement capabilities or methods. In that response, DHS said: “DHS is not going to confirm or deny law enforcement capabilities or methods. Under President Trump, ICE is using all lawful tools to remove dangerous criminal illegal aliens from the U.S.”
Privacy and civil-liberties advocates said they remain concerned about transparency even after DHS’s “no relationship” clarification. Maria Villegas Bravo, an attorney with the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said it was “promising” that ICE did not appear to be “re-upping the contract immediately,” but she said she was “always wary of vaguely worded non-association statements.” Julie Mao, deputy director of Just Futures Law, which is suing under the Freedom of Information Act for records tied to the Paragon Solutions contract, called DHS’s statement “a half measure and a red herring,” and she said the agency should provide a fuller account of the surveillance technologies it uses.