DHS hack exposes identities of over 40,000 employees, including ICE agents – National & International News
DHS hack exposes identities of over 40,000 employees, including undercover ICE agents
A hacktivist group calling itself the Department of Peace has breached a Department of Homeland Security personnel database, exposing the names and identities of nearly 42,000 of DHS’s 220,000 employees. The data was distributed to journalist Ryan Ottignon and a non-profit leak archive called Distributed Denial of Secrets (or DDoSecrets), which created a searchable database.
In a statement, the Department of Peace said, “On July 17th, [DHS Secretary] Markwayne Mullin said he was ‘turning up the heat.’ This is what happens to ICE when you do that”.
The leak contains the names and job assignments of thousands of agents involved in Trump’s immigration crackdown and deportation program. This includes thousands of Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents who were undercover, and some were agents involved in violent incidents whose identities the administration has sought to shield. The Trump administration claims that the secrecy around these agents’ identities is to protect them from threats. In practice, the lack of transparency has greatly hindered investigations into the incidents these agents were involved in, including the January 2026 killing of Alex Pretti by ICE agents in Minneapolis.
Ottignon rejected accusations that he and the hacktivists were seeking to endanger or dox government employees. He pointed out that ICE does not operate like other law enforcement agencies. They often do not wear recognizable uniforms and wear masks to conceal their identities when carrying out arrests and other enforcement actions, making it more difficult to hold them accountable when these actions result in violence or death. “We need oversight for useful government, if it exists at all,” Ottignon says, “so this is just one step in that oversight process”.
Related:
Parents of nurse Alex Pretti (killed by ICE agents) accuse DOJ of shielding their son’s killers.
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