USPS Is Using Data From Mail And Packages To Help DHS Locate And Deport Migrants

The law enforcement arm of the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has joined a group of federal agencies and is cooperating with the Trump administration's mass deportation plans by quietly helping immigration officials locate people suspected of being in the country unlawfully using data from mail and packages.

Concretely, The Washington Post revealed that the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, a little-known police and investigative force for the mail agency, recently joined a Department of Homeland Security task force geared towards aiding the administration's mass deportation efforts.

The Postal Inspection Service is primarily tasked with maintaining the safety of the mail system, investigating threats and attacks on postal workers and mail facilities and keeping illegal items— such as narcotics and child pornography— out of the mail.

According to the report, immigration officials are now using the law enforcement arm to seek photographs of the outside of envelopes and packages, as well as access to the postal investigation agency's broad surveillance systems, including Postal Service online account data, package- and mail-tracking information, credit card data and financial material and IP addresses.

Collaboration between postal inspectors and DHS was recently seen when the former participated in a drug enforcement and immigration raid in Colorado Springs on Sunday, the outlet noted reported. Agents from other federal agencies, including the FBI and Internal Revenue Service, also participated. That operation resulted in the arrest of more than 100 undocumented immigrants, local law enforcement said.

In a statement, a senior Homeland Security official said collaboration with the Postal Inspection Service was "a key part of ensuring law enforcement has the resources they need to fulfill President 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 partnership is the latest indication of how the Trump administration is expanding its powers and using different agencies at its disposal to crack down on immigration. In early April, the IRS and ICE reached an agreement where the tax agency would share tax records of suspected undocumented migrants to immigration authorities, despite previously holding that information tightly.

The collaboration with the USPS comes at a time when postal service workers fear the Trump administration will soon take steps to dismantle the service. In March, the USPS reached an agreement with Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency to cut billions of dollars from its budget and finalize a voluntary retirement buyout program announced under the Biden administration to cut 10,000 employees. The Washington Post reported also industry executives are preparing for government efforts to outsource mail and package handling and long-haul trucking routes, and offload leases for unprofitable post offices.

"There are other organizations on the chopping block right now, and it is just an amount of time before they get to us. So we just need to get the message out and get ahead of them to say 'hands off the post office'," Tameka Brown, a rural letter carrier in Louisiana and president of the Louisiana Rural Letter Carriers' Association told The Guardian. "We are the lifeline for a lot of American people, so to feel that your job is being threatened, it's heart-wrenching."