• ICE agents now use smartphone facial recognition app to instantly identify individuals and check immigration status in field operations
• Mobile Fortify app has been used over 100,000 times, accessing databases with more than 200 million biometric images
• Privacy advocates and Democratic senators demand halt to program, warning of civil liberties violations and wrongful detentions

WASHINGTON, DC (TDR) — Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers can now identify individuals within seconds by pointing their smartphones at a person’s face, marking a significant expansion of facial recognition technology into domestic immigration enforcement as President Donald Trump intensifies deportation operations.

The app, called Mobile Fortify, allows ICE agents to capture a photo and instantly access identity and immigration status by searching databases containing more than 200 million images, according to internal emails and reports. The technology replaces a time-consuming process that previously required agents to run multiple forms of identification through different systems.

Rapid Deployment Across Enforcement Operations

Agency officials confirmed the app has been used over 100,000 times in recent months, helping speed up arrests during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. A Wall Street Journal reporter witnessed the technology in action during a July enforcement operation in Lake Worth, Florida, where officers photographed two men from Guatemala stopped by a state trooper.

“We have a new app—it’s facial recognition. If they’ve ever been arrested before and we have their photo in one of our databases…we’ll get a hit.”

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Mobile Fortify was developed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection during President Biden’s term, adapting technology already used at ports of entry. Initially deployed only by Border Patrol agents near the southern border, its use has expanded dramatically under Trump, who has vowed to undertake the largest deportation program in American history.

The app allows agents to capture facial images and contactless fingerprints using their phone cameras, then queries multiple federal databases including CBP’s Traveler Verification Service and DHS’s Automated Biometric Identification System to return detailed information within seconds.

Privacy Advocates Sound Alarm

Civil liberties organizations are demanding the Department of Homeland Security shut down the program, warning it represents unchecked government overreach. Nathan Freed Wessler, deputy director of the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy and Technology Project, called the deployment a dangerous experiment.

“Face recognition technology is notoriously unreliable, frequently generating false matches and resulting in a number of known wrongful arrests across the country.”

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Wessler emphasized that Congress has never authorized DHS to use facial recognition technology in this manner, calling on the agency to shut down what he termed a recipe for disaster.

Kate Voigt, senior policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union, warned the technology can be used to scan people in streets and cars without their consent, fundamentally reorienting the relationship between authorities and individuals.

Congressional Opposition Mounts

Nine Democratic senators sent a letter to Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons demanding the agency end its use of Mobile Fortify. Senators Ed Markey, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and others warned that biometric scanning technology is frequently biased and inaccurate, particularly against people of color.

The senators requested details about ICE’s policies, practices and procedures governing the app, including who developed it, when it was deployed, whether it was tested for accuracy, and what safeguards exist to prevent misuse.

Administration Defends Technology

DHS officials defended the app as a lawful law enforcement tool developed to support accurate identity and immigration status verification during enforcement operations. A spokeswoman stated the app is used nationwide in accordance with all applicable legal authorities and formal privacy oversight.

Chad Wolf, chairman of homeland security at the America First Policy Institute and former acting Homeland Security secretary, said the technologies provide federal law enforcement tools to make Trump’s core promise of removing public safety threats more manageable.

Agency officials claim the technology has made operations faster and more accurate, reducing instances where individuals with legal status or citizenship are detained. Congress has allocated an additional $75 billion to ICE, making it the most-funded law enforcement agency in the nation.

Should federal agents have the power to scan faces on American streets without congressional authorization or judicial oversight?

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