Immigration agents have been utilizing a massive, privately run database of license plates from vehicles nationwide to track down people who may be in the country illegally, according to documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union and released Wednesday, The Washington Post reported.
The database contains billions of records on the details of vehicle locations recorded by traffic cameras and scanners used in parking lots and toll roads to monitor the movement of vehicles.
Although police have long used these devices to track criminal suspects and catch traffic offenders, the ACLU said the records they obtained from the Department of Homeland Security via a Freedom of Information Act request reveal an expanding network of surveillance that seems to have few legal limitations.
"The ACLU's grave concerns about the civil liberties risks of license plate readers take on greater urgency as this surveillance information fuels ICE's deportation machine," said Northern California ACLU staff attorney Vasudha Talla in a blog post.
ICE has been able to access driver-location information gathered from businesses in the nation's 50 largest metropolitan areas, the ACLU records show, and thousands of ICE employees have access to the database.
Critics say innocent people are thus subjected to an improper level of government surveillance, because the scanners record license-plate data on every passing car, and not just those owned by suspects.
Making matters worse for civil liberties, police can access years of data without getting permission from a judge, while, for example law enforcement agencies must get warrants to legally use GPs-tracking devices.
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