The Trump administration has intensified its pursuit of a Reddit user who made critical remarks about Immigration and Customs Enforcement. After an initial summons failed to yield results, federal authorities have now issued a subpoena compelling Reddit to surrender user information and testify before a grand jury in Washington, DC.
According to a report from The Intercept, Reddit faces an April 14 deadline to hand over extensive personal details on the anonymous account. ICE agents have reportedly spent over a month attempting to identify this individual without success.
This legal dispute originated in the US District Court for the Northern District of California. On March 12, the Reddit user filed a motion to quash a summons from the Department of Homeland Security that demanded Reddit provide data to an ICE senior special agent.
The summons invoked authority under 19 U.S. Code § 1509, a provision of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930. This statute primarily addresses customs matters related to imports such as boats, alcoholic beverages, and animals.
In the motion to quash, the Civil Liberties Defense Center, representing the Reddit user, argued the summons lacks legal justification. The filing states the user is a US citizen with no international travel, commerce, or business interests outside the country, who primarily uses Reddit for political speech about local community issues.
Despite this, the government seeks the user’s name, phone number, home address, banking and credit card details, IP addresses, telephone model numbers, and associated account names. The CLDC contends this information has no connection to customs or import/export activities and appears designed to suppress free expression.
