ICE subpoenas REI for data on buyers of green beanie in Minneapolis area

September 4, 2026 at 03:30 PM2 min

This digest was compiled by AI from multiple sources — links to the originals are below.

Homeland Security Investigations subpoenaed REI in March for transaction information on all buyers of a specific dark green beanie in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area since 2024. The subpoena is part of a federal lawsuit against 39 people who attended an ICE protest at a church. The request was one of 92 sent in the investigation, which also targeted social media companies, airlines, and telecom providers.

Key Facts

HSI subpoenaed REI in March for transaction information on all buyers of a specific dark green beanie in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area since 2024.
The subpoena was one of 92 sent as part of an investigation into 39 defendants who attended an ICE protest at a church.
Other subpoena recipients included social media companies, airlines, telecom providers, a car rental company, and a state employment agency.
At least one subpoena to an unnamed airline requested a 'lookout notification' about a defendant's future travel.
US Senator Ron Wyden called the demand 'flat-out absurd' and said customs summonses do not allow 'unending fishing expeditions'.

The Subpoena

Homeland Security Investigations agents subpoenaed REI in March, requesting transaction information for 'all persons' in the greater Minneapolis-St. Paul area who had purchased a specific type of dark green beanie from the company since 2024. REI did not respond to questions about whether it had complied with the request or how many people are affected. The subpoena was one of 92 sent as part of HSI's investigation into 39 defendants who attended an ICE protest at a church whose pastor also worked as an acting ICE field office director. Other recipients included social media companies, airlines, telecom providers, a car rental company, and a state employment agency.

Legal Basis and Criticism

The subpoenas sent by HSI agents are known as 1509 customs summons, meant to request information related to imports and exports. Since the start of the Trump administration, WIRED and other outlets have reported on DHS's attempts to unmask online critics using the legal tool, which can be sent without judicial oversight. US Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon said, 'It's flat-out absurd for DHS to demand REI search two years of customer data as part of Trump's campaign against the people of Minneapolis.' Wyden added that customs summonses only allow DHS to request information directly related to compliance with customs laws, not to conduct 'unending fishing expeditions' into the lives of people critical of Donald Trump.

Scope and Secrecy

The total number of 1509 summonses sent since the start of the Trump administration, and how many people have had their personal information collected by DHS as a result, is unknown. Companies that receive these subpoenas are typically asked to keep their existence a secret. Public glimpses of such subpoenas usually occur when a target contests it in court, either because the recipient company ignored the request for silence and notified the target, or because the target discovered it after the fact.