Overview
- Journalist Ken Klippenstein published a 15-page document marked “LAW ENFORCEMENT SENSITIVE,” provided by an anonymous Border Patrol official who cited excessive secrecy and a lack of congressional scrutiny.
- Operation Benchwarmer, described in the leak, embeds plainclothes agents in transport vans, sally ports, processing areas, and detention cells, and reports over 2,000 intelligence assets, more than 2,000 subject contacts, 492 prosecutorial leads, and 135 identified stash houses.
- Operation Abracadabra requires interviewing 100% of apprehended individuals to collect intelligence and to identify ties to foreign terrorist or transnational criminal organizations or develop follow-on targets.
- The document lists 21 major ICE operations and credits them with roughly 6,852 apprehensions since June, reflecting nationwide activity across multiple deployments.
- Klippenstein reports internal concern within DHS, the Justice Department, and the FBI over ICE’s conduct, including resignations by federal prosecutors in Minnesota, with broader worries about oversight and legal boundaries.