The reported blunder echoes the Trump administration’s infamous Signalgate fiasco.
ICE has joined the Trump cabinet in the group chat disaster club.
Law enforcement officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other agencies accidentally added a stranger to their group chat, exposing highly sensitive information about a manhunt, according to a 404 Media report published Thursday.
The blunder echoes the infamous Signal chat fiasco, in which a journalist was inadvertently included in a text chain where top members of the Trump administration discussed impending air strikes in Yemen.
The ICE messages, which discuss an active search for a convicted attempted murderer slated for deportation, were sent via MMS, or Multimedia Messaging Service, and were not end-to-end encrypted like messages on Signal or WhatsApp.
Officials reportedly texted an ICE “Field Operations Worksheet” on Wednesday that revealed detailed information about the person being sought—including their Social Security number—and DMV and license plate reader data, 404 Media reported.
The outlet labeled the incident a “significant data breach and operational security failure for ICE.”
404 Media reported that the group chat had six members, verifying one as an ICE official and identifying another as likely from the U.S. Marshals Service.
The Daily Beast has reached out to ICE and the U.S. Marshals Service for comment.
The person mistakenly added to the group chat is not a law enforcement official and had no connection to the manhunt, according to 404 Media. They told the outlet they were added weeks ago and assumed the messages were spam—until they received the ICE worksheet and license plate numbers.
404 Media, which said it obtained and verified screenshots from the group chat, has withheld the person’s identity to protect them from retaliation.
In Wednesday’s messages, the law enforcement officials discussed the search for their target and their next moves.
“Going to need to roll out at 1000,” one member texts the chat, called “Mass Text.”
“Copy. We can break it down at 10,” another replies.
The unintended recipient told 404 Media that the messages stopped coming shortly thereafter.
In what became known as “Signalgate,” Trump cabinet members, including Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, discussed classified attack plans for airstrikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen on a Signal chat.
