U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have adopted high-tech methods, including facial-recognition technology, to expedite immigration arrests.
Thanks to a $75 billion funding boost from Congress last summer, in addition to its regular budget, ICE has been experimenting with new technologies, and these could become a routine part of the arrest process as the use of artificial intelligence accelerates.
Under the Trump administration, ICE agents are reportedly using Mobile Fortify, a mobile facial recognition app, to confirm an immigrant’s identity in the field, according to various news outlets.
Until recently, the process of detaining and verifying the identity of an illegal immigrant took some time. Law enforcement and immigration agents had to run the suspect’s various forms of ID through different databases and check for a match. If the results were inconclusive, they detained them for further investigation.
Now they have facial-recognition technology at their fingertips. The app allows officers to snap a picture of the suspect’s face and turn up the person’s identity—and often their immigration status.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Mobile Fortify is routinely being used to identify illegal immigrants and facilitate ICE arrests, according to unnamed current and former government officials. It has been used in the field more than 100,000 times, according to one official.
A U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman praised the technology, saying it has made arrests both faster and more accurate and helps protect people’s rights. In the past, officers would detain someone only to learn, hours later, that they have legal status or are even a U.S. citizen.
“Mobile Fortify is a lawful law-enforcement tool developed under the Trump Administration to support accurate identity and immigration-status verification during enforcement operations,” the DHS spokeswoman said in a statement to the WSJ.
In recent months, DHS has approved a wide variety of contracts, including for “Smart Wall” construction along the border in Texas and Arizona, and other high-tech measures for border enforcement.
DHS is also inking contracts with artificial-intelligence-driven companies to locate immigrants and increase surveillance tools to identify and monitor people at the airport.
“President Trump’s core promise to the American people was to remove criminal and public-safety threats in large numbers, and these technologies provide federal law enforcement tools to make that challenge more manageable,” Chad Wolf, chairman of homeland security and immigration at the America First Policy Institute and a former acting Homeland Security secretary during Trump’s first term, told The Wall Street Journal.
But privacy and immigration advocates and some former officials are warning of potential dangers when it comes to widespread use of the technology. Critics argue the new technologies are another way to supercharge Trump’s promised mass deportation.
The Mobile Fortify app enables federal agents to snap a quick photo with a cell phone to help identify detained individuals and determine their immigration status, and another tool can scan subjects’ irises, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported in November.
In May, ICE reported using 23 active AI software programs for immigration enforcement, according to the American Immigration Council. Last month, the Council warned that DHS is “deploying similar AI functions within larger vendor-run platforms and expanding into continuous surveillance systems that pull in and analyze far more information than before.”
In June, 404 media, a digital publication focused on technology and privacy, reported that ICE was using the app in the field. 404 Media reported that Mobile Fortify uses the U.S. Customs and Border Protection system which ordinarily takes photos of people when they enter or exit the U.S., according to internal ICE emails viewed by 404 Media.
A WSJ reporter reportedly witnessed an incident in July, where ICE officers in Lake Worth, Fla., snapped pictures of two Guatemalan men whom a state trooper had just stopped.
The app, along with databases the officers could access through a laptop, showed that one of the men had been encountered before by the Border Patrol and given a notice to appear in court, one of them said.
“We have a new app—it’s facial recognition,” the officer said during another stop that day. “If they’ve ever been arrested before and we have their photo in one of our databases…we’ll get a hit.”
The Fortify app has access to several government criminal databases, which can pull up various records including previous encounters with immigration officials. For instance, agents can quickly learn if an immigrant was arrested at the southern border or entered at a legal entry point, officials said.
The WSJ reported that the app can also tap into publicly available sources, including social-media posts, according to unnamed officials familiar with how it’s being used. The app can then conduct deeper queries, sending back information such as other aliases they might use, previous addresses and social connections.
However, a DHS spokeswoman said the application doesn’t “access open-source material, scrape social media or rely on publicly available data. Its use is governed by established legal authorities and formal privacy oversight, which set strict limits on data access, use, and retention.”
The DHS spokeswoman said the app is “lawfully used nationwide in accordance with all applicable legal authorities.”
The Journal noted that the Biden administration tried to implement similar technology, but it ran into various snags. Migrants who entered under Biden could make an appointment at a legal border crossing through the CBP One app, which required them to snap a photo of themselves as part of the process.
However, several lawyers and immigration advocates said the technology struggled to recognize faces with a darker complexion. Haitian migrants in particular found it difficult to make appointments. After repeated complaints, the Biden administration improved the facial-recognition algorithm so darker skin tones would register more accurately, the Journal reported.
Mobile Fortify was first created by ICE’s sister agency, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, under the Biden administration. App developers “borrowed” from technology being used by the government to create an entry-exit system tracking people who arrive and leave the U.S. on commercial flights, according to current and former government officials who spoke to the Journal.
Initially, only Border Patrol agents, who most often work within 100 miles of the southern border, were trained and authorized to use the technology. In that zone, agents can conduct stops and searches without the same constitutional protections that apply in the interior of the country, the Journal reported.
ICE guidance states officers don’t need permission to take a photo during a traffic stop, pending arrest or another encounter. The Journal reported the technology works best when a picture is taken within about 4 feet, according to an unnamed government official. The photos are then stored in a government database.
The technology has been programmed to return only confirmed identity matches from facial scans, excluding results that are close but not definitive. ICE is working on offering a scaled-down version of the technology to local police departments that work alongside federal immigration officials.
DHS, the department that oversees various agencies including ICE, Border Patrol and the Transportation Security Administration, is also investing more money than ever in facial-recognition technology across various federal agencies.
DHS has launched facial-recognition technology and touchless scans at airport-security checkpoints and an entry-exit program to track everyone leaving the country on flights, alarming civil-rights advocates, WSJ reported.
The government’s investment in surveillance technologies has jumped significantly in the past decade, with over $30 million in contracts awarded this year, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of federal contracting data.
Those federal dollars are also trickling down to local sheriff’s departments, particularly those that participate in the 287(g) Program to support immigration enforcement.
In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Cabinet approved in late September over $14 million in grants for immigration enforcement efforts. The funding comes from a $250 million program for local law enforcement agencies to cover costs like detention beds, transportation and other technology including AI translators and license plate readers.
In mid-December, DeSantis and his Cabinet approved another $2.4 million for local agencies seeking AI language translators, pepper spray, GPS trackers, handcuffs, officer bonuses and more, Florida Phoenix reported.
Now, Mobile Fortify’s growing and widespread use by ICE has raised concerns among privacy advocates and some former officials. They argue the app is storing huge amounts of personal information and invading people’s privacy without adequate oversight.
“It can be used to point at people in the street, people in cars, and scan their facial prints without their consent,” said Kate Voigt, a senior policy counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union.
