Coalition warns DHS that ICE’s Mobile Fortify facial recognition app poses serious civil liberties risks
A coalition led by the Electronic Privacy Information Center has urged the US Department of Homeland Security to halt Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s use of the Mobile Fortify facial recognition app. The groups argue that the tool enables sweeping, error-prone surveillance in the field, with long-term data retention and no opt-out for those scanned.
A broad coalition of civil liberties and human rights groups has asked the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to stop Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from using the Mobile Fortify facial recognition app during field operations. In a letter sent to the DHS Chief Privacy Officer, the organisations argue that the tool enables intrusive surveillance that threatens privacy, civil liberties and civil rights. Their concerns are based on reporting by 404 Media and on DHS documents describing how the app works.
According to the coalition, ICE officers are using the smartphone-based app to scan the faces of people they encounter and instantly check their identity and presumed immigration status. DHS’s own policies acknowledge that facial recognition is inherently privacy sensitive, yet the app does not allow individuals to opt out and collects biometric and biographical data from anyone scanned, including US citizens and lawful permanent residents, retaining the information for 15 years. The letter notes that ICE can treat a positive face verification match as a definitive determination of someone’s immigration status, even when other evidence contradicts the result.
The coalition highlights the well-documented accuracy problems of facial recognition technology, citing research from the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology showing higher error rates for women and people of colour. Misidentifications have already contributed to wrongful arrests in other policing contexts. Because ICE often relies on images captured in uncontrolled field environments, the groups warn that the risk of misidentification is even greater.
The letter also raises concerns about the breadth of information accessible through Mobile Fortify. Once an individual is scanned, ICE agents can reportedly run a “Super Query” that pulls data linked to people, vehicles, addresses, travel records and more. Coalition members argue that giving field agents this level of access through a single facial scan could chill lawful protest and other constitutionally protected activities, noting that videos appear to show ICE pointing their phones at demonstrators.
Another major issue is the lack of a dedicated Privacy Impact Assessment for Mobile Fortify. According to the coalition, the available Privacy Threshold Analysis acknowledges that an assessment is required, but ICE and Customs and Border Protection concluded that existing documentation was sufficient. The groups dispute this, pointing out that the cited assessment for the Enforcement Integrated Database covers biometrics collected from individuals already known to ICE, not from the general public encountered in the field. The Mobile Fortify documentation explicitly states that data will be collected from any person scanned, regardless of citizenship or immigration status.
The coalition urges DHS to immediately suspend ICE’s use of Mobile Fortify, release any analyses related to its deployment and confirm whether DHS’s 2023 directive on facial recognition remains agency policy. Signatories include the American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International USA, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and more than two dozen other organisations.
