Activists in the Pacific Northwest are building a database of license plates used by immigration authorities with the hope of keeping tabs on agents’ movements.

The database, put together by an autonomous group of volunteers, currently lists more than 600 plates matched to the make and model of the vehicle they were spotted on. Most of the sightings coming from vehicles involved in enforcement actions in and around Portland, Oregon.

In helping community members to identify unmarked vehicles used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, organizers hope to give people information about the government’s activities in their area, according to one activist involved in the effort.

“It helps reduce the unknown and reduce fear,” the activist said, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid retaliation from authorities. “ICE is doing whatever they can to be undetected, and so anything we can do to chip away at that obfuscation.”

Rather than hosting the database on a centralized website, which they fear would be vulnerable to subpoenas and takedown orders, the group put their findings out through the InterPlanetary File System, or IPFS, a decentralized, peer-to-peer method of file distribution.

The database is built around community submissions of photos of ICE vehicles in action. Once the images come in, volunteers vet each picture to confirm that the plate and vehicle in question are being used by agents. The activist who spoke with The Intercept declined to go into........

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