ICE can now ID you by pointing a phone at your face — and you can’t say no

Agents photograph bystanders during immigration sweeps

ICE and Border Patrol agents are using smartphones loaded with facial recognition technology to photograph people during enforcement operations across the country.

The scans don’t just target suspected undocumented immigrants. Agents also scan bystanders, protesters, legal observers, and U.S. citizens.

Witnesses and more than a dozen verified videos show agents photographing faces in Minneapolis, Chicago, and Portland, Maine.

Some agents use professional-grade cameras to photograph activists’ faces without giving any explanation.

App matches faces against 1.2 billion images

The tool behind the scans is Mobile Fortify, a smartphone app made by NEC Corporation. An agent snaps a photo, and the app compares it against a federal database of more than 1.2 billion face images are maintained by the Department of Homeland Security.

Those images come from passport photos, visa records, criminal justice databases, and other government sources.

Within seconds, the app presents possible matches along with names, dates of birth, and other personal details. The results are “candidate matches,” not confirmed identifications, so agents must use their own judgment.

One scan pulls firearms and vehicle records

Mobile Fortify includes a feature called Super Query that reaches into FBI databases and state motor vehicle records.

A single face scan can pull up a person’s vehicles, home addresses, phone numbers, and firearms ownership information.

The app checks scanned faces against at least three databases, including a list of CBP targets and a library of travel documents like passports and licenses.

A third database category is blacked out in government documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Photos stored for 15 years, even for citizens

People cannot decline to have their faces scanned, according to internal DHS documents. Every photo the app takes stays on file for 15 years, even if the person turns out to be a U.S. citizen or gets no database match.

DHS stores these photos in its Automated Targeting System, the foundation for the agency’s watchlists.

Mubashir Khalif Hussen, an American citizen, said agents repeatedly tried to scan his face and threatened to detain him if he refused. Hussen did not consent, and agents detained him.

Agents scanned a teenager outside school

In October 2025, Border Patrol agents approached a group of teenagers outside East Aurora High School in Illinois.

Video shows one agent asking another if he could run a facial scan, then pointing a phone at a teenager’s face. The teenagers did not give consent and appeared confused.

The incident now appears in a federal lawsuit filed by Illinois and the city of Chicago against DHS.

Illinois law, the Biometric Information Privacy Act, requires consent before anyone collects biometric data like face scans.

App launched without required privacy reviews

Mobile Fortify went live in May 2025, and ICE started using it on May 20. Neither ICE nor CBP completed a legally required Privacy Impact Assessment before deploying the app.

Federal rules require agencies to finish these assessments before launching any high-risk AI system.

DHS’s own internal review called the app “privacy sensitive” and said it needs a detailed public report.

Instead of completing new reviews, ICE relied on a 2019 privacy assessment written for a different system that only covered people already in custody.

DHS quietly removed its own safeguards

In 2023, DHS issued Directive 026-11, which set department-wide rules for facial recognition use, including bias testing and privacy office oversight. The directive gave U.S. citizens opt-out rights in non-law-enforcement situations.

DHS had called these the most extensive facial recognition safeguards of any federal agency. According to a federal lawsuit, DHS rescinded that directive on or before Feb. 14, 2025.

The directive quietly disappeared from the DHS website, and the agency could not confirm whether it was still in effect.

App returned two wrong names for one woman

Accuracy is a serious concern. In one documented case, agents scanned a handcuffed woman twice with Mobile Fortify, and the app returned two entirely different names. Both were wrong.

The agent had to physically reposition her to get a usable image.

A 2019 study by the National Institute of Standards and Technology found many facial recognition algorithms were 10 to 100 times more likely to misidentify a Black or East Asian face than a white face, with the worst rates for darker-skinned women.

Lawmaker says agents override birth certificates

Rep. Bennie Thompson, ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said ICE officials told him a Mobile Fortify match counts as a definitive determination.

Thompson said agents may disregard a birth certificate if the app says otherwise. DHS pushed back, calling claims that the app violates the Fourth Amendment or compromises privacy false.

The agency said no court has blocked or restricted the app, and that it operates lawfully nationwide under all applicable legal authorities.

Illinois and ACLU file federal lawsuits

Illinois and the city of Chicago filed a federal lawsuit alleging DHS’s use of Mobile Fortify violates the Fourth Amendment right against warrantless searches.

The suit describes the collected data as a “de facto interior biometric registry” created without warrants, consent, or individual suspicion.

The ACLU of Minnesota filed a separate class action lawsuit alleging that forced facial scans have become routine during ICE operations.

ICE also holds two contracts with Clearview AI, a facial recognition company that searches social media photos, worth a combined $6 million.

Senators introduce bill to ban the technology

On Feb. 5, 2026, Sen. Ed Markey introduced the ICE Out of Our Faces Act alongside Sens. Jeff Merkley, Ron Wyden, and Rep. Pramila Jayapal. The bill would ban ICE and CBP from buying or using facial recognition technology and other biometric identification systems.

It would also require the agencies to delete all data collected through these tools. The bill lets individuals and state attorneys general seek civil penalties for violations.

Sens. Angela Alsobrooks and Bernie Sanders co-sponsor the legislation, and the ACLU and EFF have endorsed it.

Many Americans area already in the database

The 1.2 billion face images in the database include photos of U.S. citizens taken at airports, which means many Americans are already in the system without knowing it.

Anyone an immigration agent encounters during an operation could have their face scanned and stored for 15 years.

Civil liberties groups warn that tools built for immigration enforcement could expand into broader domestic surveillance. No federal law specifically governs how agencies can use mobile facial recognition on the streets.

The outcome of pending lawsuits and proposed legislation may determine whether this practice continues.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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