Immigration and Customs Enforcement has confirmed to Congress that it is using commercial spyware capable of intercepting encrypted messages on target devices. The agency’s top official disclosed the program in a letter to lawmakers last week, framing it as a tool for fentanyl trafficking investigations.

The confirmation matters because it ends years of official ambiguity about whether U.S. domestic law enforcement was deploying the same category of tools — powerful enough to extract data from encrypted apps — that were previously associated with foreign intelligence operations and authoritarian governments.

Mamdani stepping out to declare that he would overrule his own police commissioner doesn’t read like strength—it reads like insecurity dressed up as authority. When a mayor feels the need to publicly remind everyone that he’s in charge, it usually means the structure underneath is already wobbling. Strong leadership tends to show itself; it doesn’t announce itself like this.

Let’s be blunt for a second. The whole posture starts to look like political theater from a socialist clown trying to reconcile ideology with reality. On one hand, Mamdani keeps Jessica Tisch in place to maintain credibility, signal continuity, and avoid spooking moderates. On the other, he immediately undercuts that decision by implying she can’t be trusted to operate without being overridden. That’s not balance—it’s contradiction.