Crowdsourced Anti-ICE Alert Site StopICE.net Briefly Defaced with Tom Homan Image; User Data Claims Spark Outrage and Celebration

Platform restored within hours amid claims of leaked subscriber info shared with federal authorities—highlighting tensions in immigration enforcement tracking.

A popular crowdsourced platform designed to alert users to sightings of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) vehicles nationwide was temporarily disrupted Thursday, January 29, 2026, when its public database was overwritten with an image of Border Czar Tom Homan and messages alleging that user logins, locations, passwords, and phone numbers had been leaked and shared with the FBI and ICE.

The site, StopICE.net (also known as the Stop ICE Raids Alert Network), was launched in early 2025 by Sherman Austin, a Long Beach, California-based activist and software developer. It allows over 500,000 subscribers (with recent figures approaching 538,000) to report and track ICE agent and vehicle activity in real time, often including license plates, locations, and timestamps. Users receive alerts via text or the website, positioning it as a community safety tool amid the Trump administration's intensified immigration enforcement operations.

The defacement—first widely noted on X (formerly Twitter)—replaced crowdsourced ICE sighting entries with a prominent meme-style image of Tom Homan, accompanied by text reading: “HELLO STOPICE.NET” and “All your logins, locations, passwords & phone numbers given to FBI/ICE.” Screenshots circulating online showed the altered database interface, prompting immediate speculation about the breach's source and intent.

X user @DataRepublican was among the first to flag an exposed file or database vulnerability that may have enabled the overwrite. By Friday morning, January 30, the site appeared restored, with normal user-submitted reports resuming and no visible remnants of the defacement.

Pro-enforcement voices on social media quickly hailed the incident as “poetic justice,” arguing that a tool built to monitor and potentially hinder federal agents had its own surveillance capabilities turned against it. Commenters pointed to the irony: a platform accused by critics of endangering ICE personnel through doxxing-like tracking now faced similar exposure risks for its users. Some posts celebrated it as a setback for anti-enforcement activism, with one viral clip describing it as a “memetic turnaround” on tactics.

Critics and supporters of StopICE.net, however, condemned the action as a serious privacy violation and potential doxxing attempt. Reports from X discussions noted that exposed data may have included emails from .edu and .gov domains, raising alarms about risks to students, academics, or government employees who subscribed. Austin has previously defended the platform as protected speech and a necessary response to aggressive raids, citing fears of racial profiling and family separations. The site has faced prior challenges, including app store removals for similar tools, Meta subpoenas, and DHS scrutiny.

No official statement has confirmed the breach's perpetrator, method (e.g., hack, exploit, or insider access), or whether any user data was actually compromised or shared with authorities. Neither ICE, the FBI, nor Homan's office has publicly commented on the specific incident as of Friday morning.

The episode underscores deepening divides over digital activism in the immigration space: tools like StopICE.net aim to empower communities facing enforcement actions, while officials and supporters argue they obstruct lawful operations and threaten agent safety. With enforcement ramping up nationwide, similar platforms could face increased legal and technical pressures.

Sources/Notes for verification:  

• X posts from @DataRepublican and related threads (screenshots of defacement)

• Platform details via StopICE.net and Austin's prior interviews (e.g., Washington Post coverage on activist tools)

• Broader context from reports on ICE operations and related data leaks (e.g., separate agent doxxing incidents)