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Tech News
Google, Meta and other major tech companies are resisting sweeping requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement for user data, as the agency seeks information tied to immigration-related speech on their platforms. The companies are reportedly contesting the scope of these demands rather than complying automatically.
A group calling itself Department of Peace, working with hacker maia crimew, published a database named Icepick containing names, work addresses, phone numbers and job descriptions for more than 41,000 Department of Homeland Security staff, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection agents. The data was hosted via Distributed Denial of Secrets, and the hackers say they obtained it through the Okta single sign-on service. DHS has not responded to requests for comment, and Okta says it has found no evidence its systems were compromised.
Entravision, a Spanish-English broadcaster, has given an AI-generated on-air personality named Coyotec a growing role at its LA station José 97.5 FM, where it cohosts the show Al Aire y Sin Permiso with human host Geraldine Guzman. Since debuting in September 2025, Coyotec has posted on Instagram and spoken on-air about immigration enforcement, ICE raids, and immigrants' rights, including messages of support for affected families.
CNN reports the Pentagon has authorized the Department of Homeland Security to test and develop operational tactics for an 'active denial system,' a military-grade directed-energy weapon that can cause intense burning pain on skin from over half a mile away. The device, previously deployed but never used in combat by US forces in Afghanistan, has been loaned to DHS for seven months, with the Pentagon disclaiming responsibility for any resulting harm.
ICE is accelerating a $100 million program called ERO ONE that would station 142 intelligence agents in more than two dozen U.S. cities plus Washington, D.C. Procurement documents posted in September describe agents analyzing classified and unclassified data to spot patterns and threats, with a solicitation expected in December and a contract award likely by February, according to contracting experts.
Members of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have failed to reach agreement on a timeline for its next assessment report, according to Nature's Daily Briefing. The impasse raises the possibility that the 2028 UN climate conference, which includes a major stocktake of global progress, could proceed without updated scientific findings to inform negotiations. Panel co-chair Robert Vautard noted that such approvals usually take only minutes, underscoring how unusual the current standoff is.
The US government has excluded Microsoft, Adobe and several other major IT companies from a green card program, according to a report cited by TechCrunch. Microsoft responded with a statement defending its hiring practices, saying most of its US employees are Americans and that 80% of its roughly 6,000 H-1B filings last fiscal year were extensions or status changes for existing staff rather than new hires.
Four detainees at the Folkston ICE Processing Center in Georgia used the facility's video conferencing tablets to record a five-minute video describing dysfunctional immigration court proceedings and conditions inside, including a work program paying $1 a day. Attorney Samantha Hamilton said all the men in the video were subsequently placed in segregation as retaliation. Following the video's release, 45 detainees signed an open letter and about 73 are reportedly on a hunger strike.
The US Department of Homeland Security has published a proposed rule that would make universities pay up to $100,000 to let international graduates participate in Optional Practical Training (OPT), a program letting foreign students work in the US for up to three years after graduation. DHS estimates the change could cut OPT enrollment by as much as 44% and cost universities $8.4–$16.5 billion annually; roughly 420,000 students used OPT in 2025–26.
Thomas Kennedy, an Argentinian-American writer and immigration advocate, has sued the federal government alleging that a Customs and Border Protection agent searched his bags and phone upon his re-entry into the US at Miami International Airport. He says the agent took his phone for about 45 minutes, during which he believes data was copied, before releasing him without charges. Kennedy is seeking a court order requiring the government to delete any data taken from his device.
Japan's Immigration Services Agency will phase in new permanent residency requirements starting October 1, including income above the national average (applied retroactively to applications since April), Japanese-language proficiency, and a pension fund equivalent to 30 years of payouts. The agency says the changes ensure foreigners can 'live independently' without becoming a burden. Long-term residents, including a Bangladeshi tech engineer and an American who has lived in Japan for 14 years, say they fear they may not qualify.
Robert Herjavec, an investor on ABC's 'Shark Tank,' recounted to the Wall Street Journal how his family fled Yugoslavia in 1970 with just $50 after his father was repeatedly arrested for opposing the Communist Party. He described arriving in Canada unable to speak English, working an unpaid office manager job in his early 20s to break into tech, and eventually earning equity that funded his 1990 founding of the Herjavec Group, an IT security firm.