President Donald Trump's administration has reinstated a program from the first presidency to trick cell phones into connecting to fake towers run by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to target immigrants. The problem, however, is that data from Americans is getting scooped up in the process, according to privacy advocates.

Forbes cited on Tuesday that "ICE purchased nearly $1 million worth of 'cell site simulator vehicles' in May this year." At the same time, ICE also has a contract worth as much as $4.4 million with Stingray manufacturer, Harris Corporation, to use its “equipment to determine the location of targeted mobile handsets.”

It was tipped off with the unsealing of a search warrant that was part of ICE's attempts to find an individual in Orem, Utah, from Venezuela. The warrant alleges that the man was in prison there for murder and is now suspected of participating in gang activity there.

"When the government got the target’s number, they first got a warrant to get its location," the report explained. "However, the trace wasn’t precise–it only told law enforcement that the target was somewhere in an area covering about 30 blocks. That led them to ask a court for a Stingray-type device to get an accurate location."

The American Civil Liberties Union, or ACLU, has attacked these kinds of systems, saying that in the process of gathering data from the target, Stingray devices are used. In the process, they "ensnare ... bystanders’ phones as well, raising serious privacy concerns."

The Detroit News discovered unsealed documents in 2017 that requested the search warrant to use the device to find a particular person from El Salvador. The ACLU noted, "search warrants are generally available only in criminal investigations, and here the government alleged that the immigrant was wanted for the crime of unlawfully re-entering the country after being deported."

At that time, the ACLU was concerned that ICE was also using "Stingrays for civil immigration enforcement operations." Forbes didn't clarify whether the warrant for the Venezuelan man in Utah was for civil enforcement or if another criminal investigation was involved.

Both deals were also used under the Biden administration. Trump used the programs as part of his operation to deport 3.13 million people. Despite allegations of an "open border," Biden's administration deported more people than Trump (4.4 million), CNN reported, citing the annual report from Homeland Security.

Read the full report here.