Immigration agents have new technology to identify and track people

"Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is acquiring powerful new surveillance tools to identify and monitor people. They include apps that let federal agents point a cell phone at someone's face to potentially identify them and determine their immigration status in the field, and another that can scan irises. Newly licensed software can give "access to vast amounts of location-based data," according to an archive of the website of the company that developed it,"

"The federal agency is also ramping up its social media surveillance, with new AI-driven software contracts, and is considering hiring 24/7 teams of contractors assigned to scouring various databases and platforms like Facebook and TikTok and creating dossiers on users. The Trump administration is seeking to employ new technology as it tries to boost deportations to a million a year, a target that could be helped with tech to identify and locate noncitizens subject to removal."

"Some Democratic members of Congress are raising legal concerns about the new technologies and are asking questions of ICE that are going unanswered. A group of U.S. senators have called on ICE to stop using a mobile facial recognition app. "Americans have a right to walk through public spaces without being surveilled," Democratic Sen. Edward Markey of Mass. told NPR."

ICE is acquiring facial-recognition and iris-scanning apps that can identify people and determine immigration status in the field. Newly licensed software provides access to vast amounts of location-based data, and ICE revived a previously frozen contract for spyware capable of hacking into cell phones. The agency is expanding social-media surveillance with AI-driven software contracts and is considering round-the-clock contractor teams to scour platforms like Facebook and TikTok and build user dossiers. The Trump administration aims to increase deportations toward one million per year, and these technologies could assist in identifying and locating noncitizens subject to removal. Some Democratic lawmakers and privacy advocates raise legal and civil-liberties concerns and warn of inadequate oversight.

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