DHS Subpoenaed REI for 2 Years of Beanie Buyer Data — SkimNews
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- HSI agents subpoenaed REI in March for transaction information on "all persons" in the Minneapolis–St. Paul area who purchased a specific dark green beanie since 2024, according to new court filings.
- The REI subpoena was one of 92 issued as part of HSI's investigation into 39 defendants tied to an ICE protest at a church whose pastor also worked as an acting ICE field office director; former CNN host Don Lemon is among defendants.
- An unnamed airline received a subpoena asking not just for a defendant's past flights but also a "lookout notification" for future travel, the filings allege.
- T-Mobile handed over six months of defendant Georgia Fort's calls and texts via a customs summons without notifying her, while Google refused to comply with a summons seeking Fort's YouTube viewers and subscribers.
- Reddit disclosed that DHS withdrew 11 administrative subpoenas targeting accounts critical of ICE after the company objected on First Amendment grounds, and Meta pushed back against at least one customs summons, per internal DHS correspondence obtained by the EFF.
- Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) called the REI demand "flat-out absurd" and warned that 1509 customs summonses are being repurposed for "unending fishing expeditions into the lives of people critical of Donald Trump" rather than customs compliance.
Why it matters: The REI subpoena shows DHS weaponizing 1509 customs summonses — tools that require no judicial oversight — against protesters and journalists, with company responses splitting sharply: T-Mobile silently handed over six months of a journalist's call records while Google, Reddit, and Meta successfully pushed back. Until Congress restricts the tool, individual companies remain the only check on demands that target customers critical of ICE.
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