ICE agents in at least six states have been spotted wearing Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses during enforcement operations since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term.
Now, the Department of Homeland Security wants to go further by building its own smart glasses that would let agents identify people on the street in real time using facial recognition and other biometric data.
Among those technologies is wearable tech. The funds will be used to “deliver innovative hardware, such as operational prototypes of smart glasses, to equip agents with real-time access to information and biometric identification capabilities in the field,” the budget justification shows.
The larger issue, the suit alleged, is the facial recognition technology can be used on anyone, not just whomever ICE considers a target: “DHS acknowledges that a ‘photo taken by an agent using the Mobile Fortify mobile application could be that of someone other than an alien, including U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents.’”
The request for funds for smart glasses comes as certain Congress members look to limit ICE’s use of Mobile Fortify to begin with. A bill introduced by Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.), the ranking member of the Committee on Homeland Security, called the app “an unproven biometric” tech that’s still in beta, and therefor, “raises further concerns about its accuracy.”
The request surfaced during a months-long DHS shutdown triggered by a standoff over ICE funding following the killings of two American citizens by federal agents in Minneapolis, and over Democrats’ calls for ICE agents to remove all facial coverings. Senate Republicans eventually bypassed Democrats entirely through budget reconciliation to fund ICE.
