'Learn the hard way': Menacing messages flood anti-ICE activists after ominous warning

Miles Taylor, a former U.S. Department of Homeland Security turned fierce anti-Trump critic, announced the rollout of a new app designed to alert people about plans to open immigration detention facilities in an appearance on “The Rachel Maddow Show” in late April.

Roughly 72 hours later, a former programmer linked to Elon Musk’s DOGE with a large X following publicly warned about data vulnerabilities on the app while predicting that Taylor would “learn this the hard way” the following day.

Users who signed up for the app then received email messages and phone texts stating that their emails, phone numbers, locations and other information had been “forwarded to the authorities,” including the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations and ICE, according to Hagerstown Rapid Response, a Maryland-based group organizing against a proposed ICE detention facility 75 miles outside of Washington, DC.

The apparent breach was highlighted in a press release and blog post issued by Hagerstown Rapid Response and Washington County Indivisible claiming that “nearly 18,000” users were affected. The anti-ICE groups cited a post by the pro-Trump Data Republican X account indicating that 17,662 people signed up for the app.

Raw Story could not independently verify the number of people affected by the breach. On May 4, the homepage for the app read, “Under construction,” and as of Monday the site remained down.

“This is a good thing to go cancel — these facilities,” Taylor told Maddow on April 28. “And it’s clear in the communities where it’s been successful that that crowd cancellation — that outpouring of frustration is enough to get municipalities and real estate developers and folks to take a beat, and say, ‘Is this really what we want to sign up for?’”

Taylor, who previously served as chief of staff under former Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen under the first Trump administration, declined to respond to a detailed set of questions from Raw Story about the alleged data breach. Taylor was the author of 2018 New York Times “Anonymous” op-ed entitled, “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration." After leaving the administration, he co-founded the pro-democracy nonprofit Defiance.org.

Laura Spivak, a member of Washington County Indivisible, told Raw Story she regrets signing up for the GTFO ICE app. And although she said she did not receive the message stating her data was forwarded to federal agencies, the reports that others did are upsetting to her.

“Having this information stolen and sent to these three-letter agencies is unfair, terrifying, and completely unacceptable,” Spivak told Raw Story.

The Data Republican account on X was the first to publicly raise concerns about the app’s alleged security vulnerabilities.

“Don’t trust any software outside of established Big Tech,” Data Republican posted on May 1. “GTFO ICE, launched by Miles Taylor… is going to learn this the hard way. Tomorrow.”

The owner of the Data Republican account was outed by Rolling Stone in February 2025 as Jennica Pound, a former programmer for Amazon whose X posts on alleged government waste caught the eye of Elon Musk as his Department of Government Efficiency was slashing the federal workforce and grants to nonprofits.

Pound’s May 2 thread on X packaged as a “breaking” news story announcing that users “sign-up data” was “exposed” includes screenshots purporting to show the profiles of two users, albeit with the names redacted.

Two other X accounts that interact with Data Republican posted screenshots with the names of eight other users. The Data Republican account operated by Pound replied to one of the posts, and separately recommended that her followers also follow the two accounts that posted users’ names.

Pound told Raw Story she “did not access user data,” but could not speak for the other two accounts.

One of the other two accounts, @bitchuneedsoap, told Raw Story: "I did not access any data. Have a great day!"

The other account did not respond.

Responding to another X user who asked if she ran across state or local officials in the data leak, Pound wrote on May 3: “I didn’t ‘see’ anything. I reported a leak, as journalists do. But the site itself was heavily promoted across major channels the entire week.”

In the May 2 thread announcing that the data was exposed, Pound wrote: “Everything has been turned over to FBI, HSI, ICE, and more agencies.”

Pound told Raw Story she doesn’t know who sent the messages to users telling them their personal data had been “forwarded to the authorities, including FBI, HSI and ICE.”

Under the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, it is illegal to access computers without authorization, but prosecutors have wide discretion in determining what cases to take on.

Pound didn’t respond to a question about why she posted on X that information about the security vulnerability was “turned over” to Homeland Security Investigations and to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an agency under the Department of Homeland Security that is not known to have a role in protecting private citizens’ data.