Wie ein US-Bürger mit der Gesichtserkennungstechnologie von ICE gescannt wurde | Jesus Gutiérrez sagte den Einwanderungsbeamten, er sei US-Bürger. Erst nachdem sie sein Gesicht gescannt hatten, ließen ihn die Beamten frei

Some key issues:

>Gutiérrez’s experience, which he recounted to Reveal, is one snapshot of something that federal authorities have acknowledged to 404 Media that they are doing across the country: scanning people’s faces with a facial recognition app that brings up their name, date of birth, “alien number” if they’re an immigrant, and whether they have an order of deportation. 404 Media previously obtained internal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) emails revealing the agency’s facial recognition app, called Mobile Fortify, and catalogued social media videos showing agents scanning people’s faces to verify their citizenship.
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>Now, Reveal has spoken to a person who appears to have had that technology used against them. Gutiérrez sent Reveal a copy of his passport to verify his citizenship.
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>“You just grabbing, like, random people, dude,” Gutiérrez said he told the agents after they scanned his face. The officials eventually dropped off Gutiérrez after driving for around an hour. For several days, he didn’t go anywhere, not even to the gym. Gutiérrez told his father at the time that he “got kidnapped.”
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>“This is a flagrant violation of rights and incompatible with a free society,” said Nathan Freed Wessler, deputy project director for the American Civil Liberties Union’s (ACLU) Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. “Immigration agents have no business scanning our faces with this glitchy, privacy-destroying technology—especially after often stopping people based on nothing more than the color of their skin or the neighborhood they live in.”
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>Mobile Fortify is available to ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials on their work-issued phones. After an agent scans someone’s face, the app queries an unprecedented collection of U.S. government databases, including one run by the FBI and another that checks for outstanding state warrants, according to user manuals seen by 404 Media. The app runs the person’s face against a database of 200 million images, according to internal ICE material 404 Media viewed.
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>The need for Mobile Fortify, according to that internal document, is for immigration authorities to identify people who can be removed from the country. But it acknowledges that it may be used against U.S. citizens, like in Gutiérrez’s case.
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>“It is conceivable 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 document reads.
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>Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, previously told 404 Media that ICE will prioritize the results of the app over birth certificates. “ICE officials have told us that an apparent biometric match by Mobile Fortify is a ‘definitive’ determination of a person’s status and that an ICE officer may ignore evidence of American citizenship—including a birth certificate—if the app says the person is an alien,” he said. “ICE using a mobile biometrics app in ways its developers at CBP never intended or tested is a frightening, repugnant, and unconstitutional attack on Americans’ rights and freedoms.”
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>In Gutiérrez’s case, there is little indication that he was stopped for any reason beyond the color of his skin. He is of Mexican descent, he said. Stops of people based on their race, use of Spanish, or location (such as a car wash or bus stop) have become known among critics as “Kavanaugh stops,” after Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh justified the method in a September opinion.
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>The ACLU’s Wessler added: “In the United States, we should be free to go about our business without government agents scanning our faces, accessing our personal information, saving our photos for years, and putting us at risk of misidentifications and wrongful detentions. ICE and CBP’s use of Mobile Fortify on the streets of America should end immediately.”
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>DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement, “DHS is not going to confirm or deny law enforcement capabilities or methods.” CBP said that the agency built the app to support ICE operations and that it has been used by ICE around the country.
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>A CBP spokesperson added in a statement, “Mobile Fortify is a law enforcement app developed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection for ICE agents and officers. It helps field personnel gather information during immigration inspections, but agents must consider all circumstances before deciding on someone’s immigration status. CBP personnel working with ICE teams can access the app after completing required training. Further details cannot be shared due to law enforcement sensitivities.”

To say that these are disturbing developments would be understating the severity of this intrusion into the lives of visible minorities or other groups that have been targeted by the administration. That ICE is claiming that they can operate with impunity pretty much anywhere in the country indicates that the nation isn’t turning into a police state, but rather it is one now.