Homeland Security Investigations used administrative subpoenas 185,000 times since January 2025

Homeland Security Investigations puts the number of administrative subpoenas issued since January 2025 at no fewer than 185,000. Federal court filings confirmed the estimate. That figure surpasses the roughly 170,000 customs summonses issued between 2016 and August 2022, a span of six and a half years. The agency passed that benchmark in less than two years.

Wired’s 2023 count of that historical total came from an ICE database obtained through FOIA.

Agency officials generate and sign administrative subpoenas internally, so the demands need neither a court order nor grand jury approval. Under normal criminal rules, investigators have to show legal necessity to a judge before getting private records. Congress created the tool for inspectors to review business records when calculating import duties.

The number came from a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit that the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed against the Department of Homeland Security. Aaron Mackey, the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s deputy legal director, said the group asked for records on demands sent to technology companies, internet platforms, and service providers since January 20, 2025.

Whether the total covers only demands to technology platforms or a wider investigative portfolio remains unclear. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials would not explain why administrative subpoena use increased and did not answer Wired’s questions about the increase. Homeland Security Investigations functions as Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s criminal investigative branch.

The power dates back nearly a century to customs summons authority Congress gave the former United States Customs Service. The 2003 Homeland Security Act moved those legacy customs authorities to the Department of Homeland Security. Many administrative demands draw on 19 U.S.C. § 1509, a summons power created for investigations into illegal imports and unpaid customs duties.

In court, the administration says the transfer permits agents to use customs summonses in investigations reaching past traditional customs and immigration boundaries. Civil libertarians dispute that legal position. According to the inspector general, procedural manuals limited 1509 customs summonses to customs and immigration enforcement, a restriction the administration rejects in court.

From 2016 to 2022, recipients of customs summonses included schools, abortion clinics, news organizations, and boards of elections. Agencies face almost no institutional downside because the demands bypass judicial review.

When a recipient refuses, the agency may ask a court to compel compliance or withdraw the demand and issue a grand jury subpoena instead. Aaron Mackey said giving law enforcement powerful investigative tools without strict judicial limits creates serious abuse risks and threatens privacy rights and First Amendment protections.

Administrative demands frequently target major technology corporations and internet service providers. The Department of Homeland Security has challenged technology companies that resist warrantless orders. The agency took Google to court to force compliance with an administrative summons. Federal agents pulled back an administrative subpoena served on Reddit and replaced it with a grand jury subpoena to obtain user information.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation said the Department of Homeland Security repeatedly pulled subpoenas after recipients objected and before courts ruled on their legality. Federal officials have used administrative summonses to identify anonymous online commenters who criticized leaders.

In a Minneapolis-St. Paul inquiry, investigators demanded REI customer purchase records and the names of everyone who bought a particular green beanie before a protest. In 2017, the Department of Homeland Security inspector general reprimanded the Customs and Border Protection Office of Professional Responsibility over a customs summons targeting an anonymous Twitter user.

Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon described the documented numbers as a dragnet domestic surveillance program run by Homeland Security. Senator Ron Wyden plans to wield the Senate Finance Committee gavel next year to investigate Homeland Security Investigations and its customs summons use targeting political opponents.

Wyden and Jayapal asked the Government Accountability Office in September to examine gag requests in Department of Homeland Security and Justice Department subpoenas. Wyden and Jayapal said Homeland Security Investigations used its subpoena authority to surveil, intimidate, and suppress free speech and the free press. They described the effort as one “to surveil, intimidate, and suppress the free speech of ordinary citizens and even the free press.”

The Electronic Frontier Foundation filed suit against the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement in April 2026. The Electronic Frontier Foundation’s complaint says DHS and ICE used subpoenas to unmask or locate people who recorded ICE activity, criticized the government, or attended protests. Reports say Homeland Security Investigations secretly obtained six months of phone records for Minneapolis journalist Georgia Fort.