An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Maine was captured on video adding an onlooker recording their activity to a supposed “database” of domestic terrorists, drawing alarm from political experts and journalists alike.
Uploaded to social media Friday by freelance reporter Nathan Bernard, a contributor to the Maine Morning Star, the video depicts an ICE agent approaching an onlooker filming their activity and proclaiming that it’s “not illegal to record.”
“Why are you taking my information down?” the recording onlooker can be heard saying.
“Because we have a nice little database,” the ICE agent is heard responding. “And now you’re considered a domestic terrorist!”
The recorded encounter drew swift condemnation among journalists and political experts, such as independent journalist Glenn Greenwald.
“Having armed, masked federal agents roam the streets and threaten American citizens that they’re being put into a ‘database’ and are being deemed a ‘domestic terrorist’ for the crime of videotaping them should disgust everyone,” Greenwald wrote in a social media post on X Friday.
The recorded encounter is consistent with a joint FBI and Homeland Security memo leaked last year that broadened the definition of domestic violent extremists – the government’s stand-in phrase for domestic terrorists – to include protesters taking “advantage of First Amendment-protected activity,” which includes recording members of law enforcement.
First reported on by independent journalist Ken Klippenstein, the leaked FBI-DHS memo further warned that so-called domestic terrorists had frequently “leveraged large, lawful protests” in “multiple cities,” sparking fears that lawful protesters could be classified as domestic terrorists under the Trump administration.
Krystal Ball, former MS NOW reporter and current host of the news program “Breaking Points,” reacted to the video with a blunt response: “This is insane.”
ICE agent in Portland, Maine tells legal observer she is a domestic terrorist for peacefully recording him, adds her to “nice little database” pic.twitter.com/6miHpXUdT7 — Nathan Bernard (@nathanTbernard) January 23, 2026
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