DHS Defends Using Facial Recognition Tech: Allows Quick Identification

The increasing use of facial recognition software by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other Department of Homeland Security personnel to quickly identify persons of interest during enforcement operations is viewed by federal officials as an important tool, as they reject claims that the technology violates privacy protections or the Constitution.

Many photos are being taken on the streets through a DHS smartphone app, Mobile Fortify, which rapidly identifies individuals after their faces are scanned and then presents their information to agents, according to documentation released by the DHS.

A department spokesperson said in a statement to NBC News that Mobile Fortify allows agents to "quickly identify persons of interest."

However, the spokesperson said that "claims that Mobile Fortify violates the Fourth Amendment or compromises privacy are false."

"Mobile Fortify has not been blocked, restricted, or curtailed by the courts or by legal guidance. It is lawfully used nationwide in accordance with all applicable legal authorities," the spokesperson said.

Last month, White House border czar Tom Homan said the administration plans to compile information on people accused of interfering with immigration enforcement.

"We're going to create a database where those people that are arrested for interference, impeachment, assault; we're going to make them famous," Homan said in an interview.

His remarks are drawing fresh attention to the surveillance technology federal immigration agents are increasingly using on U.S. streets.

ICE and other federal immigration enforcement personnel have been seen photographing and scanning faces during enforcement operations, not only of suspected immigration violators, but also of observers and bystanders, according to videos and witness accounts.

The encounters have been reported in places including Minneapolis, Chicago, and Portland, Maine.

Agents have been recorded holding phones close to people's faces, while sometimes asking them to "do facial," in what some observers say appears to be attempts to verify identity or citizenship status.

In other cases, officers have used professional-grade cameras to photograph activists and people observing enforcement actions, according to videos and firsthand accounts.

Beyond the devices themselves, DHS policy documents describe guardrails the department says are meant to prevent the technology from becoming a broad, indiscriminate dragnet, reports Biometric Update.

The directive also says facial recognition results cannot be the sole basis for law- or civil-enforcement actions, and that potential matches must be reviewed by human examiners before any action is taken.

It further says U.S. citizens must be offered an opt-out and alternative processing for non-law-enforcement verification uses, unless otherwise required by law.

The technology, however, is not always infallible.

Wired reported that the app doesn't verify the identities of people stopped by federal immigration agents, noting such identification is a "well-known limitation" of the technology.

"Every manufacturer of this technology, every police department with a policy makes very clear that face recognition technology is not capable of providing a positive identification, that it makes mistakes, and that it's only for generating leads," Nathan Freed Wessler, deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, told Wired.

A separate controversy has centered on claims that observers are being labeled as domestic threats, reports NBC News.

In a video posted online by a Maine woman, an ICE agent tells her that "we have a nice little database" and says she is "considered a domestic terrorist."

DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin disputed that characterization in an emailed statement: "There is NO database of 'domestic terrorists' run by DHS."

On Capitol Hill, Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., introduced legislation this week that would ban ICE and Customs and Border Protection from using facial recognition technology, and he and other Democrats have pressed DHS for more details on Mobile Fortify's safeguards and data handling.

Civil liberties groups and state officials have also filed lawsuits challenging the scanning practices as unlawful searches.