Lawmakers: ICE’s Forced Face Scans Violate Constitution
▼ Summary
– Social media videos confirm ICE and CBP officers are using facial recognition technology on US streets to verify citizenship.
– In a Chicago incident, officers scanned a teenager’s face with an app after he lacked government ID, despite his claim of US citizenship.
– ICE uses Mobile Fortify, an app that scans government databases and compares faces against 200 million images to retrieve personal details.
– Democratic senators criticize these tools as biased and inaccurate, disproportionately impacting communities of color and fostering racial profiling.
– Senators cited an instance where ICE wrongfully detained a US citizen due to incorrect biometric identification, demanding an end to this practice.
Recent social media footage has brought to light a concerning practice: officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) are reportedly using facial recognition technology on American streets to check individuals’ citizenship status. In a video shared on a Chicago Instagram account, a teenager who identifies as a U.S. citizen is seen interacting with officers. After explaining he lacks a government-issued ID and offering his student ID, one officer asks another, “can you do facial?” The second officer then opens a mobile application and scans the minor’s face. Throughout the process, the first officer tells the young man to “relax” and suggests that many parents falsely claim their children were born in the United States. The clip concludes once the officer photographs the teen and requests confirmation that his name matches the information retrieved by the app.
While the specific application used in this Chicago incident remains unidentified, reports indicate that ICE and CBP have significantly expanded their reliance on facial scans. This expansion coincides with a broader federal deportation initiative that has drawn criticism for allegedly encouraging racial profiling. Earlier this year, leaked internal communications revealed that ICE employs a tool called Mobile Fortify, which grants agents access to a vast range of government databases. This system can compare a single facial image against a collection of roughly 200 million photos.
A single photograph processed through the app reportedly provides agents with a person’s full name, date of birth, alien registration number, and information about any existing deportation orders. However, Mobile Fortify is just one of several biometric tools in use. In a September letter, Senator Bernie Sanders and seven Democratic senators called on ICE to discontinue its use of Mobile Fortify and similar technologies. They emphasized that such systems frequently demonstrate bias and inaccuracy, particularly when scanning people of color.
Lawmakers have pointed out that these tools contribute to environments where racial profiling becomes more common. They argued that the technology is disproportionately deployed against communities of color, increasing their risk of unjust scrutiny. Citing one instance in which a U.S. citizen was mistakenly detained for over a day due to an incorrect biometric identification, the senators described ICE’s ongoing use of facial recognition as unacceptable. They have demanded an immediate end to the practice, stressing that it infringes on constitutional rights and undermines public trust.
(Source: Ars Technica)
