U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is deploying a new suite of surveillance technologies that let agents identify, track and monitor people in the field. The tools include smartphone apps that can scan faces and irises, software that aggregates location-based data, spyware that can compromise phones remotely, and expanded social-media monitoring powered by AI.
Mobile face- and iris-scanning
Documents and reporting show ICE and other Department of Homeland Security components are using mobile facial-recognition tools that allow an agent to point a phone at someone’s face to search law-enforcement photo databases. One app known from agency documents, Mobile Fortify, reportedly queries Customs and Border Protection images — including photos taken at U.S. ports of entry — and can return details such as name, birth date, an alien registration number and a potential overstay designation. The documents say photos collected in the field may be retained for up to 15 years and that subjects cannot decline to be photographed.
Another DHS office has made a similar app available to state and local officers who work with federal immigration authorities. Separate procurement notices indicate the agency is also seeking iris-scanning capabilities.
A video posted to social media in Illinois appears to show Border Patrol agents asking to ‘do facial’ on two teenagers and pointing a phone at a subject’s face. It is not publicly known which app was used in that encounter, but the clip has become part of lawmakers’ and privacy groups’ concerns about on-demand biometric identification of people in public, including minors.
Location data, social media and AI
ICE has licensed software described by its developer as providing access to vast amounts of location-based data, and the agency is pursuing AI-driven contracts to expand social-media monitoring. Reporting indicates ICE is considering dedicated contractor teams to monitor platforms and databases around the clock and build investigative dossiers on users across services like Facebook and TikTok.
Spyware and phone hacking
In August the agency revived a paused contract with a company founded in Israel that sells offensive mobile intrusion tools. One product, Graphite, has been forensically linked to attacks on journalists and civil-society figures in Europe. Graphite can, according to researchers, begin extracting data from a phone — including encrypted messages — by delivering a crafted message to the device; the recipient does not need to tap a link.
Civil-rights and privacy lawyers say such spyware gives ‘essentially complete access’ to a phone and raises Fourth Amendment concerns. Legal groups have sued the Department of Homeland Security seeking records about contracts with that company and with firms that specialize in cellphone extraction tools.
Lawmakers and advocates raise alarm
Some Democratic members of Congress and a bipartisan group of senators led by Sen. Edward Markey have asked ICE to stop using mobile facial-recognition tools and to answer detailed questions about how those systems are used, the legal authorities relied upon, whether U.S. citizens are included in matched databases, and whether the tools have identified protesters or minors. Those questions have gone unanswered in public filings and responses.
Critics warn the technologies erode anonymity in public spaces and could chill protest and speech. ‘Americans have a right to walk through public spaces without being surveilled,’ Sen. Markey said. Privacy experts at Georgetown Law and other organizations say immigration enforcement powers are being used to justify broader mass surveillance, and that there is insufficient regulatory oversight to protect civil liberties.
Independent researchers and think tanks also highlight how DHS’s surveillance capabilities have expanded over decades. A prior Georgetown report found ICE could locate a large fraction of U.S. adults through utility and other commercial records and had scanned a substantial portion of driver’s license photos. Advocates say the current administration’s deportation priorities make the new capabilities especially consequential.
Agency statements and rules
ICE has defended its use of technology as consistent with longstanding law-enforcement practices and said technological tools aid criminal investigations, naming gangs, child-sex offenders and violent criminals as enforcement priorities. DHS has indicated that components must follow internal requirements and oversight frameworks, but it generally declines to discuss specific vendors or operational tools.
Separately, DHS has proposed a rule that would broaden when U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services can collect biometric data from noncitizens and some family members seeking immigration status changes. The proposal would allow collection of facial images, iris scans, fingerprints, palm prints, voice prints and even DNA in some circumstances. The public comment period for that rule is open through early January.
Implications
Civil-liberties groups, lawyers and some lawmakers say the combination of mobile scanning, location aggregation, spyware and large-scale social-media surveillance creates a powerful surveillance apparatus with limited transparency. They urge strict legal limits, independent oversight, and public debate before deploying technologies capable of identifying and tracking people in public and private settings.
Researchers, journalists and advocacy organizations continue to seek records about specific contracts and deployments; litigation and congressional inquiries are likely to shape how these tools are used and regulated going forward.