Letter Text (PDF)

Washington (July 31, 2025) - Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), member of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, and Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) today led a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem on the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) recent usage of Predator drones and aerial surveillance against peaceful protesters in Los Angeles. This surveillance is a clear threat to the protesters’ privacy and their constitutional rights that are guaranteed by the First Amendment. Senators Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) also signed the letter.

In the letter the lawmakers write, “Even if the technology were perfectly accurate, this form of surveillance could have a chilling effect on constitutionally protected rights, particularly freedom of assembly and speech. Protesters may fear that showing up at a rally could result in DHS or other government entities logging their names into a government database, sharing records with law enforcement, or even subjecting them to reprisal. That fear is not theoretical. Authoritarian regimes already use facial recognition to track down dissidents. But even in democratic societies, such tools can disproportionately target and harm communities of color, intensifying existing biases in law enforcement and eroding trust in public institutions.”

The lawmakers continue, “On June 10, the Department posted a video to X — collected from a drone — overlayed with a dramatic soundtrack and a caption stating ‘WATCH: DHS drone footage of LA rioters. This is not calm. This is not peaceful. California politicians must call off their rioting mob.’ The publication of these videos appears to be a violation of the Department’s own requirement limiting the disclosure of video collected on an aircraft to authorized personnel with an authorized purpose. Americans could easily understand the publication of this video as an implicit threat to reveal the identities of protesters, instilling fear in any members of the public who seek to exercise their constitutionally protected rights to speech and assembly.”

The lawmakers request responses by August 21, 2025, to questions including:

1. What cameras, radar, or other surveillance equipment were equipped on the Predator drones that flew over Paramount and Los Angeles during the June protests?
2. Did DHS officials identify any individuals based on information collected by the unmanned aircraft that surveilled the California protests, including in combination with other information or with the assistance of facial recognition technology?
3. Which agencies and officials requested support from the Predator drones, when was the request made, and when and by whom were they approved?
4. What data privacy protocols are currently used to govern information captured by aerial surveillance at U.S. protests?
5. How are DHS staff with access to aerial surveillance data trained on data management protocols?
6. What was the approval process for publishing videos taken by the Predator drones of the protests in Los Angeles on X?
7. Has DHS deployed manned or unmanned aircraft systems to photograph, record, or otherwise monitor other protests since January 20, 2025?

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