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Today on the Daily Scoop Podcast from the Scoop News Group alleged ICE and DHS location data purchase come under scrutiny from Democrats and CISA CIO Robert Costello has exited the agency. It's Wednesday, March 4, 2026. Welcome to the Daily Scoop Podcast, where you'll hear the latest news and trends facing government leaders. I'm the host of the Daily Scoop Podcast, Billy Mitchell. Thanks so much for joining me. And now let's dive into the day's top headlines. More than 70 Democrats in the House and Senate are pushing the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general to open a new investigation into the agency's warrantless purchases of Americans location data. In a letter sent Tuesday, the lawmakers tasked IG Joseph Kfari with investigating whether Immigrations and Customs Enforcement is purchasing illegally obtained location data about Americans, how that data has been used, whether audits of employee access to uncover abuse are occurring, and the policies governing data usage. The Democrats said in their letter, quote, location data is extremely sensitive and can reveal someone's religion, their political views, medical conditions, addictions and with whom they spend time. It's for that reason that ordinarily the government must obtain a warrant from a judge in order to demand such data from phone or technology companies. The letter comes nearly three years after an initial IG report found that Customs and Border Protection, the Secret Service and ICE violated federal law through warrantless purchase and use of location data. As part of that 2023 report, the watchdog office said the DHS components did not adhere to established privacy policies, nor did they develop sufficient guardrails before procurement and use. Khfari pointed to shared accounts, ad hoc record maintenance and no supervisory review of usage. The IG recommended that ICE discontinue use of commercial telemetry data until privacy impact assessments were completed, as well as suggesting the development and implementation of compliance controls. Despite ICE ending a program in 2023 that centered on Americans cell phone data. After the probe, public contracting documents indicate the DHS component has since resumed the practice, according to lawmakers. The oversight attempt by Democrats via Tuesday's letter is the latest in a series of moves designed to rein in dhs' data gathering and sharing agenda. In late February, more than a dozen members of a House oversight subcommittee expressed concern in a letter to Secretary Kristi Noem regarding cell phone data procurement. Similar to the newest letter, these lawmakers pointed to reports of DHS contracts with Penlink and Paragon vendors known to provide access to mobile devices. In other news, the chief information officer of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security agency announced his departure Tuesday, ending his nearly five year run at CISA. Robert Costello, an 18 year veteran of the Department of Homeland Security, posted about the move on LinkedIn. Costello's tenure had recently grown turbulent with conflicting accounts of whether the since departed acting director of cisa, Madhu Ghattamakala, had tried to force him out. Costello last week received transfer orders for possible reassignment to another agency. Costello had supporters on the Hill and elsewhere, with House Homeland Security Chairman Andrew Garbarino, Republican of New York, saying as recently as last month that it was good that an earlier reported attempt to move Costello out of the CISA CIO job had fallen short. As CIO at the agency, Costello advocated for top notch tech as a recruiting boon. He has been involved in efforts to respond to vulnerabilities within CISA and has sometimes served as a public face for the agency at events, touting new tools designed to enhance CISA services and arguing for greater use of artificial intelligence in his role. He said in his LinkedIn post, serving as CIO at CISA has been one of the greatest privileges of my career. Together we strengthened our cybersecurity posture, modernized critical systems and built capabilities that will endure. I am incredibly proud of what we accomplished as a team. Costello did not indicate his next plans beyond leaving the federal government and a commitment to service and to the nation. His move isn't the only recent shakeup at the agency. CISA recently got a new acting director, Nick Anderson, to replace Ghautta McCalla after the former acting director left for a DHS headquarters post as the nomination of Sean Planky to lead SZA continues to stall. On top of that, the acting Chief Human Resources Officer Kevin Diana also reportedly received transfer orders. For more news at the intersection of the federal government and technology, make sure to visit fedscoop.com