As ‘No Kings’ protests decry Trump, surveillance worries emerge

Published on: October 19, 2025 4:34 AM

People who take part in Saturday’s mass “No Kings” protest against President Donald Trump’s administration may be targeted for federal government surveillance with a range of technology that could include facial recognition and phone hacking, civil libertarians said.

“No Kings” organizers expect 2,600 rallies across all 50 U.S. states. But the level of surveillance at protests and the type of technology in use is likely to be both location-specific and dependent on the police forces present, said Thorin Klosowski, a security and privacy activist with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said Friday.

For instance, crowds in Washington, D.C., where anti-scale fencing has been erected around the White House complex, are likely to be surveilled differently than those in a small rural town.

“Under previous administrations, law enforcement surveillance of peaceful demonstrations was already commonplace and corrosive of free expression,” Ryan Shapiro, executive director of government transparency group Property of the People, said in an email Friday.

“Given Trump’s open hostility to even minor dissent, such surveillance now poses an existential threat to what remains of American democracy and only underscores the need for mass protest.”

One federal law enforcement agency, the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has been implementing Trump’s immigration crackdown and has amassed a digital surveillance arsenal, according to various news outlets.

That includes facial recognition, opens new tab and phone hacking tools, opens new tab, as well as cell site simulators, opens new tab, which can allow for granular surveillance of protesters’ mobile phones, opens new tab. Multiple federal agencies have deployed social media monitoring, according to the Brennan Center., opens new tab

Earlier this year, the Trump administration deployed MQ-9 Predator drones, opens new tab, aircraft traditionally used to spot and kill enemies in combat zones, over Los Angeles during anti-ICE protests. The agency also uses lower tech tools, such as the high-definition cameras regularly seen at recent protests in Chicago.

Department of Homeland Security officials didn’t directly respond to a query about potential surveillance of “No Kings” protesters. “As it does every day, DHS law enforcement will enforce the laws of our nation,” the department said in a statement. An ICE spokesperson told Reuters in an email Saturday that “the First Amendment protects speech and peaceful assembly – not rioting. DHS is taking reasonable and constitutional measures to uphold the rule of law and protect our officers.”

Surveillance isn’t limited to federal agencies. Multiple local police departments have used facial recognition technology, with laws governing its use varying from state to state, news outlet Stateline reported, opens new tab in February.