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Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have scanned millions of licenses
US immigration officers have used facial recognition technology to search drivers’ licenses in states that issue licenses to undocumented immigrants.
Millions of licenses were scanned by FBI and ICE agents between 2014 and 2017, without the holders knowing.
Records of the searches were obtained by Georgetown Law researchers and passed on to the Washington Post.
The two agencies were reportedly given access by DMV offices directly, without going through state legislators.
This is thought to be the first known case of ICE agents using facial recognition technology to scan drivers’ licenses for surveillance purposes.
‘A huge bait and switch’
Some states, including New York, Washington, and the District of Columbia, allow undocumented migrants to obtain driver’s licenses, provided they show evidence that they’re resident in the state and pass a driving test.
While police departments hold data such as fingerprints and DNA that are taken from criminal suspects, the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) holds a far larger database of information on residents.
The vast majority of people whose data is held by the DMV have never been suspected of a crime.
The canning of the DMV database by ICE and the FBI has been widely criticised by rights campaigners and activists. Harrison Rudolph, an associate at Georgetown Law’s Center on Privacy and Technology, told the New York Times that the revelations were “a scandal”.
“These states have never told undocumented people that when they apply for a driver’s license they are also turning over their face to Ice,” he said. “That is a huge bait and switch.”
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Barbara Peña Solis, from Raices immigration law centre in Texas, tweeted that the practice was “surveillance tech with a political agenda” and said it could have far-reaching consequences.
She wrote: “Besides targeting undocumented individuals, Ice can also target attorneys, journalists and activists. Why? ICE isn’t obtaining consent.”
BBC News has contacted ICE for comment. In a statement to the Washington Post, the agency said its techniques “are generally considered law-enforcement sensitive”.
The FBI did not comment directly, but referred the US paper to a previous statement made by its deputy assistant director in defence of facial recognition technology.