The Watchers: 500 American Agents Operate Across Europe. Your Government Never Mentioned It.
There are approximately 500 American federal agents stationed across 93 offices in 56 countries. At least eight offices are in Europe, Rome, Berlin, Brussels, Frankfurt, Athens, London, Madrid, The Hague. They work for Homeland Security Investigations. They have diplomatic immunity.
"HSI agents are present in more than 50 countries, including for many years Italy." , Italian Interior Ministry, January 2025
For many years...
Most Italians learned American immigration agents were operating in their country the same week Milan's mayor said they weren't welcome at the Olympics.
The mayor was protesting their arrival.
But they never left. They've been there all along.
The Occupation Nobody Announced
There are approximately 500 American federal agents stationed across 93 offices in 56 countries. At least eight of those offices are in Europe, Rome, Berlin, Brussels, Frankfurt, Athens, London, Madrid, The Hague.
They work for Homeland Security Investigations, the investigative arm of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. They operate out of American embassies. They carry government-issued firearms. They have full diplomatic immunity.
Italian police can't arrest them. German courts can't prosecute them. European privacy laws don't apply to them.
And nobody told you they were here.
No referendum. No parliamentary debate. No announcement. The offices just opened, one by one, over decades. The agents arrived. The surveillance began. And your government said nothing.
What They Can Do
Let's be specific about capabilities.
Facial Recognition
Clearview AI scraped billions of photos from social media without permission. Built a database that can identify almost anyone. ICE uses it. HSI has access.
If you've ever posted a photo online, of yourself, your friends, your family, it's probably in there. And an American agent in Rome can search it. Without a warrant. Without your knowledge. Without any European law applying.
Phone Hacking
In 2024, ICE purchased access to Paragon Solutions' "Graphite" spyware. Israeli military-grade technology. Zero-click exploits.
It can hack your phone by sending you a message. You don't click anything. The message arrives, your phone is compromised. They can read your WhatsApp. Your Signal. Your encrypted messages. They can activate your camera. Your microphone. Track your location.
You would never know.
Location Tracking
The Department of Homeland Security spent millions buying location data from apps on your phone. Venntel, Babel Street, Penlink. Weather apps, fitness trackers, games, they all sell your movements.
The ACLU's conclusion: DHS "circumvents the Constitution by buying data it would normally need a warrant to access."
That's in America, where constitutional protections theoretically exist.
In Europe, where HSI operates under diplomatic immunity, there's nothing. No Fourth Amendment. No GDPR jurisdiction. Nothing.
Mass Financial Surveillance
In 2024, HSI's office in The Hague provided 2,084 financial leads to a single operation. Five months of monitoring money transfers.
2,084 leads. That's not targeted investigation. That's mass surveillance of financial transactions across Europe.
Whose money were they tracking? Under what authority? With what oversight?
Nobody knows. They don't say.
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The Legal Black Hole
Here's the fundamental problem: there is no law governing this.
The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations was written in 1961. For diplomats. For ambassadors attending state functions and negotiating treaties.
It was not written to authorize federal agents conducting mass surveillance and coordinating criminal investigations with local police.
But that's what it's being used for.
There is no treaty specifically authorizing HSI operations. No Status of Forces Agreement like the ones governing U.S. military bases. No bilateral law enforcement agreement spelling out what they can and cannot do.
They're piggybacking on embassy status. Operating in a gray zone between diplomacy and policing. Protected by immunity meant for ambassadors, doing work that would require judicial authorization if anyone else did it.
Your rights under GDPR:
- Know what data is collected about you
- Know who has access
- Request correction
- Request deletion
- Challenge unlawful processing
Your rights against HSI:
- None
GDPR doesn't govern U.S. diplomatic facilities. The EU-US Privacy Shield was invalidated by European courts because U.S. surveillance laws make data protection impossible. The replacement agreement relies on written promises from American intelligence officials.
Written promises.
From the same administration currently using doxing websites to target students for deportation.
The Accountability Void
If an HSI agent violates your rights, what can you do?
Sue them in European court? They have diplomatic immunity.
File a complaint with your data protection authority? No jurisdiction over U.S. diplomatic facilities.
Request your data under GDPR? They're not subject to it.
Sue in American courts? Under what law? U.S. constitutional protections don't apply to foreigners abroad.
You can't even find out if they've surveilled you. There's no disclosure requirement. No transparency mechanism. No way to know what they've collected, where it's stored, who has access.
The system is designed for unaccountability.
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Who Let Them In?
Your government.
Quietly. Over decades. Without telling you.
The European Union has spent billions enforcing data privacy against American tech companies. Fined Meta. Blocked mergers. Passed the Digital Services Act. Gone after Google, Apple, Amazon.
But they've been silent about the American government agency operating on European soil with surveillance capabilities that make Facebook look quaint.
Why?
Because European law enforcement benefits. Joint operations produce arrests. Intelligence sharing prevents attacks. The arrangement works, for them.
So they made a deal. American agents get access to European databases through Europol. European police get access to American surveillance technology. Everyone gets to claim credit for busting criminals.
And European citizens? They get surveilled by a foreign power with no legal recourse.
Nobody asked if you were okay with that. Nobody asked if you consented. The deal was made above your head, in rooms you'll never enter, by officials who answer to interests that aren't yours.
The Mission Creep
HSI's official mission: investigate transnational crime. Human trafficking. Drug smuggling. Child exploitation.
The reality under Trump 2.0: immigration enforcement.
In 2018, nineteen senior HSI officials warned that their investigative mission was being "hamstrung" by ICE's deportation priorities. They requested separation from ICE.
The Trump administration ignored them.
Now HSI agents work joint operations with deportation officers. The line between criminal investigation and immigration enforcement has blurred. And HSI has offices across Europe with access to European databases, surveillance technology, and no oversight.
In 2024, HSI assembled a "tiger team" to pursue international students who participated in pro-Palestinian protests. They used information from Canary Mission, a doxing website. They investigated 5,000 names for potential deportation.
An American federal law enforcement agency. Targeting people for deportation. Based on doxing websites. For political speech.
This is the agency operating in your country. With diplomatic immunity. With surveillance technology. With access to your data.
Still feel safe?
The European Silence
The Milan Olympics controversy created a moment of visibility. For one week, Europeans asked: who are these people? What are they doing here?
And then?
No European Parliament inquiry. No GDPR investigation. No data protection authority demanding answers. No calls for transparency about how many agents operate where, doing what, with access to which systems.
The Italian Interior Ministry issued a statement acknowledging HSI's presence "for many years."
And everyone moved on.
This is how it works. Brief controversy. Official acknowledgment. Return to silence.
The machinery continues operating. The surveillance continues. The data keeps flowing. And Europeans go back to not knowing, or not wanting to know, what's happening in their own countries.
The European Complicity
While Italian politicians protested ICE's presence at the Olympics, Capgemini, a French multinational headquartered in Paris, was providing IT infrastructure for ICE operations.
European politicians denounce American immigration enforcement. European companies build the systems that make it possible.
This isn't hypocrisy. It's compartmentalization.
European leaders get to express outrage for domestic audiences. European corporations get American government contracts. European law enforcement gets access to American surveillance capabilities.
Everyone benefits. Except you.
You get surveilled by foreign agents operating beyond your legal system. You get your data fed into American databases with no privacy protection. You get an "alliance" that serves institutional interests while treating your rights as negotiable.
And if you complain? You're told it's necessary for security. Fighting crime. Keeping you safe.
From whom?
The Question Nobody's Asking
Do you consent to this?
Not your government. You.
Do you consent to 500 American agents operating across Europe with diplomatic immunity?
Do you consent to surveillance technology that can hack your phone, track your location, identify you from old photos?
Do you consent to your data being stored in American systems beyond the reach of European law?
Do you consent to an arrangement where you have no mechanism to challenge violations, no court to sue in, no authority to appeal to, no way to even know what's been collected?
Because nobody asked.
Your government made these arrangements without you. Quietly. Over decades. In the name of security.
Now those same agents work for an administration targeting students for political speech. Using doxing websites as intelligence. Blurring investigation and deportation.
The infrastructure is built. The offices are open. The surveillance is running.
All that's left is deciding what it gets used for.
The Watcher
There's an American federal agent working out of the U.S. Embassy in Rome. Via Vittorio Veneto 121.
He was there yesterday. He's there today. He'll be there tomorrow.
He has access to Italian police databases. He coordinates with Europol. He can deploy surveillance technology that Italian police would need a warrant to use. He has diplomatic immunity that shields him from Italian law.
He's been there for years.
And unless something changes, unless Europeans demand transparency, accountability, legal frameworks that actually govern these operations, he'll be there for years to come.
Watching.
While everyone pretends this is normal.
The choice is simple:
You can look away. Go back to not knowing. Trust that the arrangement serves your interests, even though you weren't consulted and can't verify.
Or you can demand answers.
How many agents? Where? Doing what? With access to what data? Under what authority? With what oversight?
Your government knows. They've always known.
They just never thought you'd ask.
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Sources: Department of Homeland Security • ICE Official Statements • Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations • ACLU Research • The Guardian • Human Rights Watch • PBS NewsHour • Time
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