The vote has already been underway when ICE agents arrived at a polling place in Syracuse, New York, during the state’s primary in June. The agents were there to see Paigelynn Gonyea, a poll worker who says they were concerned about an Instagram post she had allegedly made in January “doxing” an ICE agent. The only post he could find was one he had made crediting the Minnesota Star Tribune for identifying Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who shot and killed Renee Good during the federal raid in Minneapolis this winter, and calling for his indictment.

Agents at the polling place asked Gonyea to sign a warning notice that said it was illegal to “threaten to assault, kidnap, and/or murder” federal officials or their immediate family members in an effort to impede that federal official’s work. The form also requested that you delete your post “and/or stop” your behavior.

“My signature would have been an admission of guilt,” Gonyea says. “I refused to sign it.”

ICE did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

The incident, which was first reported by local news outlet Syracuse.com, was disturbing in many ways, but one part caught Gonyea’s attention: The warning notice said it was sent by ICE’s Office of Professional Responsibility.

“That office is supposed to be for internal investigations,” Gonyea says, “and now they’re using their own internal departments with American civilians.”

OPR is It is supposed to act as an internal watchdog. It is responsible for inspecting detention facilities, investigating allegations of employee and contractor misconduct, and processing security screenings for new applicants. On its site, it says it also protects against “external threats” by managing credentialed access to buildings and maintaining the security of the agency’s network. But lately, court documents indicate, he appears to be going after more civilians like Gonyea for what they say online.

In a court declaration filed in April, an ICE official said that between January 2025 and March 2026, OPR investigated 131 cases involving “incidents of doxing and threats directed at ICE employees across the country.”

It is unclear how many of those cases resulted in criminal charges. WIRED was able to identify only one case in which OPR was credited for its investigative work in a case in which the Department of Justice accused a California man of harassing an ICE attorney and his mother. The Justice Department alleged that the man, who pleaded guilty, lived in the same building as the mother and that he began his campaign of harassment in January 2024, long before President Trump took office. ICE did not respond to questions about whether other cases have been filed based on OPR’s work or how many additional cases OPR has opened since March.

“It takes a lot to convict someone for their speech, and it’s only possible in very limited circumstances,” says Laura Moraff, an attorney with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy and Technology Project. “People have a First Amendment right to criticize the government and to do so online and anonymously.”

OPR was behind at least one of the spate of administrative subpoenas sent to tech companies in recent months in an effort to unmask online critics. In court papers, the author’s lawyers argued that the subpoena, which requested the author’s name, address, telephone number and other details, violated his right to freedom of expression. The government withdrew the subpoena rather than attempt to litigate its merits.