ICE Is Arresting And Keeping A Database Of People Who Follow Them In Cars

ICE is cracking down on citizens who follow them in their cars, and it's leading to arrests and a government database where citizen's names, photos and information are being kept. These "agents" are doing this under the protective umbrella of Title 18, Section 111 of the U.S. Code, which is a catch-all misdemeanor or felony charge for anyone who "forcibly assaults, resists, opposes, impedes, intimidates, or interferes" with a federal officer while they're conducting official duties.

The Trump administration has prosecuted at least 655 people under Title 18, Section 111 across the U.S. since ICE and other border patrol agencies began harassing folks who live here last summer, according to a review of federal court records done by Reuters. It's more than double what the numbers were during the same period in 2024-2025. Obviously, Trump and his cronies are doing this to dissuade people from their right to protest and surveil ICE officers.

One suburban Minneapolis resident and mother of seven, Becky Ringstrom, found out in a terrifying way what can happen when ICE decides it doesn't want you near them anymore. From Reuters:

Ringstrom was heading home after following federal immigration officers in her gray Kia SUV in suburban Minneapolis when she was suddenly boxed in by unmarked vehicles. At least a half-dozen masked agents jumped out to arrest her, one knocking on her windshield with a metal object as if threatening to use it to break her window.

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Ringstrom had watched federal immigration officers for about 45 minutes as they sat in a parked car in her neighborhood on Thursday, January 29. When they started to move, she decided to follow along in her SUV, keeping a distance of multiple car lengths behind, she said.

At a roundabout, a Border Patrol agent approached her car and said, "Last time I'm going to warn you," according to video Ringstrom recorded on her phone.

The officers went right at a stop sign and she went left, she said. Several minutes later as she started to head back toward her house, multiple vehicles with federal officers stopped and arrested her, she said.

"I know what I'm doing is not wrong," Ringstrom said later in an interview with Reuters.

Still, she said she was terrified when federal officers approached her car. "There was a moment where I thought I could be Renee Good," she said[.]

After her arrest, which was recorded by a bystander, the 42-year-old was transported to the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis. There, she was given a citation charging her under Title 18, Section 111, and she was told her name and photo would be added to a government database. Oddly, the court date was listed as "TBD," according to Reuters.

Though Ringstrom said she turned in an opposite direction from ICE at that intersection, Tricia McLaughlin, a U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, told Reuters that she had "stalked law enforcement" and attempted to obstruct them from "performing their sworn duties."

ICE has apparently been tracking the names of protestors in an internal database for months now, according to two officials who spoke with Reuters anonymously. It has names, photos, locations, license plates and "actions that provoked suspicion," they said — adding that it was put together in an effort to spot patterns that could lead to charges against people. DHS said that it's not maintaining a database of U.S. "domestic terrorists," but it does track "threats, assaults and obstructions" against officers.

It's not just that database, either. ICE has been tracking cars for a long time now. Back in November, we told you about an app they used called "Mobile Companion" which pairs photos of license plates to data from Motorola Solutions and Thomson Reuters. Using Motorola's huge network of license plate-scanning cameras, they can track where a vehicle has been, where it frequently goes, and other vehicles it has traveled with. It also gives them access to all sorts of personal data, like your Experian credit report, marriage records, voter information, driver's license records, and more. It's some real dystopian stuff. Some states are doing their best to keep ICE out of their license plate databases, as we explained, but it seems they are finding ways around that roadblock.

Reuters spoke with a University of South Carolina School of Law professor who focuses primarily on policing, and he said in the past that Title 18, Section 111 has been used to charge assaults on officers, and it specifically states that the alleged crime must be committed "forcibly." It doesn't take a genius to realize that following someone in their car isn't much of a forcible assault, and the judiciary seems to agree.

Stephen Maturen/Getty

In a January order, a federal judge in Minneapolis said that a vehicle following ICE at "an appropriate distance" didn't justify a traffic stop or arrest. That ruling was paused by an appeals court 10 days later.

You know things are bad when even former ICE officials are saying the situation is getting out of hand. Deborah Fleischaker, a top ICE official under the Biden administration, said it was both "inappropriate and unconstitutional" to intimate and arrest people just because they were following ICE officers in their cars, according to Reuters. She added that it was "not a crime, and should not be treated as such."

Current DHS spokesperson McLaughlin feels otherwise.

"When agitators willingly involve themselves and inject themselves in law enforcement operations, they are risking arrest as well as jeopardizing the safety of themselves and those around them," she told Reuters.

Of course, sometimes ICE throws teargas in a car full of children, landing three in the hospital, just because they dared to park near a protest. It's a story we told you about earlier this year, and one of the children — a six-month-old — had to be administered CPR right then and there.

ICE put out new internal guidelines that instructed officers not to engage with protestors, but it doesn't seem to have had much impact. There are still many examples of ICE agents drawing their weapons on drivers they allege are following them. Hell, the same day Ringstrom was arrested, immigration officers reportedly swerved, stopped their vehicle, and approached a woman driving behind them with their guns pointed at her, Reuters reports. Apparently, those officers were attempting to arrest a "criminal offender" when the woman in that car began "stalking and obstructing them," according to McLaughlin, which led to her arrest.

"Law enforcement officers attempted to pull her over using their emergency lights to issue her a warning," McLaughlin said. "Ignoring law enforcement commands, the agitator refused to pull over and began driving recklessly, including running stop signs, nearly colliding with multiple vehicles, and driving directly at law enforcement in an attempt to ram their vehicle."

These are just a few examples of ICE coming after citizens in their cars who have committed the heinous act of seeing what they were up to. On one occasion, ICE reportedly followed a woman all the way back to her house, making it clear they knew her identity and where she lived. Her husband came outside to question the tactic, and — in a now-viral video — one of the officers said, "You raise your voice, I erase your voice." This isn't an isolated incident either. Agents have admitted to following people back to their houses on multiple occasions to "freak them out," according to one officer.