In response to lawmakers’ ongoing questions about ICE’s surveillance practices, a previously unpublicized letter to Congress reveals that Department of Homeland Security officials are taking an increasingly evasive approach when asked whether the Trump administration created a database of protesters labeled as “domestic terrorists.”

The administration has repeatedly denied that DHS maintains a specific database of US citizens who protest ICE operations or photograph federal agents. But this letter, which was addressed on May 22 and comes amid mounting litigation over ICE’s alleged intimidation of protesters, appears to sidestep the question of a standalone protester database entirely.

“ICE does not independently approve adding individuals or entities to the U.S. government’s Terrorist Screening Dataset (TSDS),” John Cooper, assistant director of ICE’s Office of Congressional Relations, wrote in response to a February inquiry from Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.).

The TSDS is a publicly known, interagency terrorist watchlist that is not maintained by ICE and was not the subject of Markey’s questioning. The letter is the first time ICE has publicly mentioned the TSDS in response to questions about........

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