What Do the Postal Police Do? Latest Agency Drafted Into Mass Deportations

Another federal agency is now involved in the Trump administration’s widening crackdown on illegal immigration: the United States Postal Inspection Service.

First reported by The Washington Post Tuesday night, the relatively small department within the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is now working in partnership with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to provide details on potential illegal immigrants, including account data and credit card information.

“This is a continuation of a pattern that we’ve seen from the administration that is attempting to destroy guard rails within government that protect personal data,” Don Pell, policy counsel at the Project on Government Oversight, told Newsweek.

“Every federal agency contains enormous amounts of data on people, business groups, so on and so forth, and what we’re seeing with a lot of the recent reporting, with some of the actions that have been spurred by executive orders, is this is this attempted aggregation of data that really does risk infringing upon, and probably is infringing upon, privacy rights and constitutional rights.”

Newsweek reached out to USPIS for comment via email Wednesday morning.

A DHS official did not answer questions on what data was being shared, instead telling Newsweek that the administration “will use every tool and resource available” to secure the border and remove illegal immigrants.

“These actions are a key part of ensuring law enforcement has the resources they need to fulfill President Donald Trump’s promise to the American people to remove violent criminals from our streets, dismantle drug and human trafficking operations, and make America safe again,” the official said.

What Is USPIS?

The Postal Inspection Service is the country’s oldest federal law enforcement agency, having been around for 248 years. Its mission is to protect the USPS, its workers, and Americans who use the system.

Among its officers’ duties are preventing the trafficking of narcotics, such as fentanyl, and preventing and investigating mail and identity theft, as well as enforcing global mail security.

While working with DHS on immigration appears to be a new development, USPIS frequently works with other federal agencies to secure prosecutions for other crimes related to the postal service.

How Is USPIS Aiding Mass Deportations?

USPIS is now handing over photos and scans of the outside of envelopes and packages, the Post reported, from a service known as “mail covers.” DHS has also been granted access to other surveillance systems, as well as USPS online account data and mail tracking.

That information, like other data held by other federal agencies, has largely been kept within USPIS unless criminal activity was detected, such as fentanyl trafficking or child pornography distribution.

Adam Schwartz, privacy litigation director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told Newsweek that the USPS moving out of its usual lane was concerning for everyone’s privacy, given that any user of the service leaves behind “digital breadcrumbs” when buying things like stamps or using mail-tracking services.

“All you think you’re doing is being the customer of a service to deliver your letter and the postal services is collecting this information about you, which to a point is OK, if they are using that information for the intended purpose, which is to process your purchase, to give you the information you want,” Schwartz said.

“So it’s very alarming that according to this this new report, the Postal Service is taking this data and handing it over to a different government agency for the purpose of law-enforcement and of deporting immigrants. If they can hand over your information to find immigrants, they can handover your information to do to do anything.”

Schwartz said similar practices have played out before. In the 1930s and 1940s, Census Bureau data was used to round up and remove Japanese Americans. During Richard Nixon’s presidency, he used sensitive IRS and FBI information when forming his enemies list.

The information USPIS hands over to DHS will likely aid wider actions in tracking down and detaining those in the United States without legal status, or who have violated immigration rules.

The department has been trying to find those who entered the U.S. illegally and have managed to stay off the radar by making it a requirement for all immigrants to register with DHS. So far, around 47,000 have done so.

According to the Post, sources within USPIS said it was felt the agency should cooperate with immigration enforcement, due to reports that the administration wanted to downsize or make drastic changes to USPS overall.

Multiple Federal Agencies Involved

In a video of an immigration raid in Colorado on Sunday, USPS police were seen among other federal agents, including those from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

While U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is the primary agency responsible for detaining and deporting illegal immigrants, the Trump administration has been drafting agents from across the federal government to assist in its efforts to ramp up deportations.

Sightings of FBI, DEA, and other agents have become a common occurrence during targeted enforcement efforts, along with those from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). This has prompted concerns from some that attention has shifted from focusing on known violent or sexual offenders, but the White House has insisted that agents are going after the “worst first.”

ICE said on Tuesday that it had deported over 65,000 people since January 20, part of a larger number given by DHS of 142,000. President Trump, however, promised millions would be deported under his leadership, and agencies have reportedly been under pressure to dramatically increase deportations.

The expanding nature of DHS’s efforts, including requesting data from USPIS, worried both Bell and Schwartz, who told Newsweek that previous data protections for all living in the U.S. were being dismantled.

“When you are removing the barriers that have that have allow for people to feel safe in sending information to the government, I think that has a chilling effect across the board,” Bell said.