Inside ICE’s Supercharged Facial Recognition App of 200 Million Images
ICE officers are able to point their smartphone’s camera at a person and near instantaneously run their face against a bank of 200 million images, then pull up their name, date of birth, nationality, unique identifiers such as their “alien” number, and whether an immigration judge has determined they should be deported from the country, according to ICE material viewed by 404 Media.
The new material, which includes user manuals for ICE’s recently launched internal app called Mobile Fortify, provides granular insight into exactly how ICE’s new facial recognition app works, what data it can return on a subject, and where ICE is sourcing that data. The app represents an unprecedented linking of government databases into a single tool, including from the State Department, Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the FBI, and state records. It also includes the potential for ICE to later add commercially available databases that contain even more personal data on people inside the United States.
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“This app shows that biometric technology has moved well beyond just confirming someone's identity. In the hands of ICE officers, it's becoming a way to retrieve vast amounts of data about a person on demand just by pointing a camera in their face,” Dave Maass, director of investigations at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), told 404 Media. “The more they streamline its use, the more they streamline its abuse. When an officer says, ‘papers please,’ you could choose to say nothing and face the consequences; with face recognition, your options are diminished.”
A memo sent to ICE officials describes Mobile Fortify as “Biometric Capture Made Easy.” Beyond facial recognition, it has a feature that allows ICE officers to use a smartphone camera to scan and save a person’s fingerprints with a feature it called “contactless fingerprints.” It says the app “allows officers to run remote identity checks in the field by capturing contactless fingerprints and facial images using their ICE-issued iPhones. The application runs facial images against over 200 million DHS and Department of State records.”
A demonstration included in the material shows a person standing in front of a phone’s camera with an ellipse on the screen where their face will be scanned. “Searching Face,” the app says.
The material adds that fingerprints are run against DHS’s central repository of biometrics. To capture these, the user manual tells ICE officers to “align the subject’s fingers inside of the blue box and hold until the camera has captured the prints.”
ICE officers can use the tool to perform what the material describes as a “Super Query.” This includes querying multiple datasets at once related to “individuals, vehicles, airplanes, vessels, addresses, phone numbers and firearms,” according to the memo.
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According to screenshots of the app viewed by 404 Media, the Super Query feature can search the National Crime Information Center (NCIC), which is an FBI-maintained database containing “missing persons and criminal information;” the Nlets system which includes whether someone has an outstanding state warrant against them; CBP’s system that screens people at the border called TECS; and another CBP database called the Seized Assets and Case Tracking System (SEACATS) that tracks material previously seized by CBP and ICE.
After scanning a face, fingerprints, or entering details about an identity document, the app can return a “SCREENED HITS FOUND” message, according to the user manuals. Those results include the subject’s name, nationality, age and date of birth, and unique identifiers such as their “alien registration,” and “CIV ID,” which is a system issued by United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The results also include “Immig. Judge Decision,” presumably referring to whether an immigration judge has ruled on this person’s case, and “final order.” In the example given in the user manual, the immigration judge decision section says “remove.”
404 Media first revealed the existence of Mobile Fortify in June, based on leaked ICE emails, which showed ICE was repurposing data collected when people enter or exit the United States for enforcement inside the country.
Mobile Fortify differs from more well-known facial recognition tools, such as Clearview AI, because Clearview doesn’t necessarily have access to government databases. When a law enforcement officer uses Clearview, it checks a subject’s face against a massive archive of images Clearview has scraped from social media and the wider web. That can return someone’s name, potentially, and their social media presence. Mobile Fortify, meanwhile, takes someone’s identity and then burrows into DHS’s and other agencies' databases to surface much more information about the person, and information that only the government may possess.
Flight Manifests Reveal Dozens of Previously Unknown People on Three Deportation Flights to El Salvador
Hacked data obtained by 404 Media reveals dozens more people on deportation flights to El Salvador who are unaccounted for. “We have not heard from these people’s families, so I think perhaps even they don’t know,” one lawyer said.
The material indicates that Mobile Fortify may soon include data from commercial providers too. One section says that “currently, LexisNexis is not supported in the application.” LexisNexis is a massive data broker that collates data including peoples’ addresses, phone numbers, and associates. LexisNexis did not respond to a request for comment.
In videos posted to social media, ICE officers have repeatedly been seen pointing their phones in a way that suggested they were scanning or taking a photo of someone’s face. It is unclear whether the officers were using this tool or not.
Facial recognition technology can be inaccurate and lead to wrongful arrests. In one case, a Detroit man spent 30 hours in a jail cell because the technology thought he was a criminal, the New York Times previously reported.
“I worry ICE could be embracing a less accurate system because they’re indifferent to mistakes or even trying to build in systems that maximize chances of producing a ‘match’ that gives them a pro forma basis for stopping or detaining people, an especially accrue risk as ICE is being criticized in court for improper stops and racial profiling,” Jake Laperruque, deputy director of the Center of Democracy and Technology's Security and Surveillance Project, told 404 Media.
ICE has repeatedly made mistakes during its ongoing mass deportation effort, including detaining American citizens or raiding the wrong house.
ICE was recently granted a new budget of $28 billion.
DHS did not respond to a request for comment. The FBI deferred a request for comment to ICE. The State Department did not respond.
Flight Manifests Reveal Dozens of Previously Unknown People on Three Deportation Flights to El Salvador
Hacked data obtained by 404 Media reveals dozens more people on deportation flights to El Salvador who are unaccounted for. “We have not heard from these people’s families, so I think perhaps even they don’t know," one lawyer said.Jason Koebler (404 Media)
ICE Is Using a New Facial Recognition App to Identify People, Leaked Emails Show
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is using a new mobile phone app that can identify someone based on their fingerprints or face by simply pointing a smartphone camera at them, according to internal ICE emails viewed by 404 Media. The underlying system used for the facial recognition component of the app is ordinarily used when people enter or exit the U.S. Now, that system is being used inside the U.S. by ICE to identify people in the field.The news highlights the Trump administration’s growing use of sophisticated technology for its mass deportation efforts and ICE’s enforcement of its arrest quotas. The document also shows how biometric systems built for one reason can be repurposed for another, a constant fear and critique from civil liberties proponents of facial recognition tools.
“The Mobile Fortify App empowers users with real-time biometric identity verification capabilities utilizing contactless fingerprints and facial images captured by the camera on an ICE issued cell phone without a secondary collection device,” one of the emails, which was sent to all Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) personnel and seen by 404 Media, reads. ERO is the section of ICE specifically focused on deporting people.
The idea is for ICE to use this new tool to identify people whose identity ICE officers do not know. “This information can be used to identify unknown subjects in the field,” the email continues. “Officers are reminded that the fingerprint matching is currently the most accurate biometric indicator available in the application,” it adds, indicating that the fingerprint functionality is more accurate than the facial recognition component.
The emails also show the app has a “training range,” a feature that lets ICE officers practice capturing facial images and fingerprints in a “training non-live environment.”
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Do you know anything else about this app? I would love to hear from you. Using a non-work device, you can message me securely on Signal at joseph.404 or send me an email at joseph@404media.co.A video posted to social media this month shows apparent ICE officers carefully pointing their phones at a protester in his vehicle, but it is not clear if the officers were taking ordinary photos or using this tool.
Broadly, facial recognition tools work by taking one image to be tested and comparing it to a database of other images. Clearview AI for example, a commercially available facial recognition tool which is used by law enforcement but which doesn’t appear to be related to this ICE tool, compares a photo to a massive database of peoples’ photos scraped from social media and the wider web.
For the facial recognition capability of this ICE tool, the emails say Mobile Fortify is using two government systems. The first is Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) Traveler Verification Service. As part of the Traveler Verification Service, CBP takes photos of peoples’ faces when they enter the U.S. and compares these to previously collected ones. In an airport those can include photos from a passport, visa, or earlier CBP encounters, according to a Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) previously published by CBP. With land crossings, that can include a gallery of “frequent” crossers for that port of entry, the PIA adds.
The second is the Seizure and Apprehension Workflow. This is what the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) describes as an “intelligence aggregator,” bringing together information related to searches and seizures.
“The app uses CBP's Traveler Verification Service and the Seizure and Apprehension Workflow that contains the biometric gallery of individuals for whom CBP maintains derogatory information for facial recognition,” the email reads. The exact definition of derogatory information in this context is not clear but 404 Media has previously reported on a database that ICE uses to find “derogatory” speech online.
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One of the internal ICE emails says the app also has a “Super Query” functionality, which is available to ICE officers who also have access to another CBP system called the Unified Passenger Login system (UPAX) which is used for passenger vetting. “This additional tool allows the user to Super Query the facial or biometric results to better assist in determining the immigration status of the person in question,” the email says.One of the emails says the tool uses DHS’s Automated Biometric Identification System (IDENT), the agency’s central biometric system, for the fingerprint matches.
ICE did not respond to a request for comment. CBP acknowledged a request for comment but did not provide a response in time for publication.
ICE already has access to other facial recognition tools. A 404 Media review of public procurement records shows at least $3,614,000 worth of contracts between the agency and Clearview, for example. Clearview’s tool may reveal a subject’s name and social media profiles. But the company’s results won’t include information on a person’s immigration status or other data held by the government, whereas a government curated tool might.
“This information can be used to identify unknown subjects in the field.”
The Mobile Fortify app is just the latest example of ICE turning to technological solutions to support its deportation mission. 404 Media previously revealed Palantir, for example, was working with ICE to build a system to help find the location of people flagged for deportation as part of a $30 million contract extension. Palantir is now a “more mature partner to ICE,” according to leaked internal Palantir discussions 404 Media obtained.At first facial recognition was a capability only available to the government. Over the last several years the technology has proliferated enough that ordinary members of the public can access commercially available tools that reveal someone’s identity just with a photo, or build their own tailored tools. On Tuesday 404 Media reported that a site called ‘FuckLAPD.com’ is able to identify police officers using a database of officer photos obtained through public records requests. The same artist who made that tool also created one called ICEspy, which is designed to identify employees of ICE, although the underlying data is out of date.
ICE officers are consistently wearing masks, neck gaiters, sunglasses, and baseball caps to mask their identity while detaining people.
According to internal ICE data obtained by NBC News, the Trump administration has arrested only 6 percent of known immigrant murderers. Meanwhile, ICE continues to detain nonviolent, working members of immigrant communities who have lived in the country for decades, particularly in Los Angeles. NBC News says almost half of the people currently in ICE custody have neither been convicted or charged with any crime.
In May, the Trump administration gave ICE a quota of 3,000 arrests a day.
Trump administration sets quota to arrest 3,000 people a day in anti-immigration agenda
The target was delivered by Stephen Miller and Kristi Noem, and triples figures fromearlier this yearJosé Olivares (The Guardian)
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