Kristi Noem’s ‘Catastrophic’ ICE Wiretap Blunder Finally Exposed

Photo Illustration by Eric Faison/The Daily Beast/Getty/Reuters A “catastrophic” tech blunder by Kristi Noem’s Department of Homeland Security put the public in danger by preventing ICE from using wiretaps to catch suspected criminals for months.

The extraordinary failure in April last year—which experts say will take “years” to recover from—followed an “inadvertent” change to the internet provider used by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), ICE’s criminal investigative arm, according to information buried deep in an obscure government document uncovered by PunchUp .

The outage coincided with the number of wiretaps reported by DHS investigators collapsing by more than 80 percent under then-Homeland Security Secretary Noem, 54.

In admitting its mistake, DHS warned that losing wiretap capability for long periods can “severely cripple” ongoing high-stakes criminal investigations and pose a “direct, unquantifiable risk” to undercover agents and the public.

And PunchUp, the Daily Beast’s sister investigations Substack , has also found that the failure could have had even wider ramifications because DHS records show HSI’s electronic-surveillance operation supports investigations involving other federal agencies, including the FBI and DEA.

Eric Balliet, a former Homeland Security Investigations agent who spent 25 years in federal law enforcement and used between 250 and 300 wiretaps, said he was astonished by the blunder.

“I cannot fathom a federal law enforcement agency not having the capability or capacity to legally intercept communications,” he told PunchUp.

“When you lack the ability to intercept communications—phone calls, messaging apps and texts—the criminal networks win.

Fentanyl, cocaine and heroin hit the streets.

People are smuggled.

People die.” Balliet, who retired in July 2024, added, “I truly cannot comprehend how a law enforcement agency could drop the ball in such a catastrophic manner.” Richard Marianos, a former assistant director with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), which used the HSI wiretap system, said the potential ramifications of wiretaps being out of action for such a prolonged period were massive.

“It becomes much more difficult to get intelligence against an organization and take out the high-value targets who are the decision makers on a telephone rather than those out on the streets committing crimes,” said Marianos, who teaches a master’s class on wiretapping at D.C.’s Georgetown University and is a protective intelligence expert at Kronus Intelligence Group .