A newly surfaced Department of Homeland Security document reveals federal plans to arm local police departments with facial recognition technology that immigration agents currently use — a development that would dramatically expand the surveillance reach of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
According to the document, the technology used by federal immigration agents would be made available to local law enforcement, extending the scope of ICE’s ability to identify and track individuals at the local level.
The plan represents a significant shift in how immigration enforcement tools could be deployed across the country, putting powerful identification technology in the hands of local police agencies that have not previously had access to it.
