Activists worry about ICE face scans

Millions of driver’s license photos being collected

Frank Bajak

ASSOCIATED PRESS

BOSTON – Civil rights activists are complaining about the potential for widespread abuse following confirmation that at least three states have scanned millions of driver’s license photos on behalf of Immigration and Customs Enforcement without the drivers’ knowledge or consent.

Public records obtained by the Georgetown Law Center on Privacy and Technology provided the first proof that ICE had sought such scans, which were conducted in Utah, Vermont and Washington.

All three states – which offer driving privileges to immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally – agreed to the ICE requests, according to documents shared with The Associated Press on Monday and first reported by The Washington Post.

“States asked undocumented people to come out of the shadows to get licenses. Then ICE turns around and uses that to find them,” said Alvaro Bedoya, the center’s director.

ICE spokesman Matthew Bourke did not address written questions, including whether the agency used the scans to arrest or deport anyone.

“During the course of an investigation, ICE has the ability to collaborate with external local, federal and international agencies to obtain information that may assist in case completion and prosecution efforts,” Bourke said in a written response. “This is an established procedure that is consistent with other law-enforcement agencies.”

At least two cases in Utah and one in Washington state appeared to involve immigration enforcement, but the majority of requests from ICE in Utah were from its Homeland Security Investigations division, which has a limited role in immigration enforcement.

The documents for Vermont and Washington involved just a handful of records. The Utah document obtained by Georgetown was a ledger with details on more than 1,800 cases spanning two years of requests from multiple agencies, including other states, the FBI and the State Department.

The use of facial-recognition by state, federal and local law enforcement agencies has grown over the past decade as an FBI pilot project evolved into a full-scale program.

Twenty-one states and Washington, D.C., let the FBI access their drivers’ license and identification photos, according to a Government Accountability Office report published last month. The report

said the FBI currently has access to 640 million photos – including for U.S. visa applicants – with more than 390,000 photos searched for matches since 2011, the year the agency augmented its fingerprint database with facial analysis.

Privacy concerns over the burgeoning use of facial recognition are on the rise as public awareness of the virtually unregulated practice grows. San Francisco and Somerville, Massachusetts, have in recent weeks become the first U.S. cities to ban the use of facial recognition by their police and city agencies. Amazon and has come under fierce criticism for providing facial recognition tech to law enforcement.

One major concern of activists is that the technology could be abused in the Trump administration crackdown on immigration. Shankar Narayan, director of the technology and liberty project at the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington, said federal agencies “are seeing a huge opportunity to use technologies … to enforce immigration statutes in a way that was never intended.”

In July 2017, Georgetown researchers filed Freedom of Information Act requests with every state seeking documents on how they responded to requests for facial recognition information from Law enforcement agencies, Bedoya said.

Many states ignored or denied the requests. Utah, Vermont and Washington provided useful responses. In Utah, ICE asked to search the database containing license images 49 times between October 2015 and November 2017, said Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Marissa Cote. No search warrant or subpoena was required, but all searches involved potential criminal suspects, she said.

State officials are not always informed if ICE catches a suspect, though the agency has been informed in some cases where a suspect was identified, including heroin trafficking, narcotics smuggling and credit-card identity theft, Cote said.

The state does not run searches for people whose only infraction is living in the country without proper documentation, Cote said.

The use of facial-recognition by state, federal and local law enforcement agencies has grown over the past decade as an FBI pilot project evolved into a full-scale program.


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How "Trumpian" Smart!


"Driver Licenses, Here! Come and Get Your FREE Driver License!"

So basically, illegals enter the country illegally, get released on a promise to appear, and “activists “ get upset that they should be as traceable in the system so if they break further laws, can be located. Got it.

quote:

ICE face scans Millions of driver’s license photos being collected

I don't get how you came up with that? They have access to millions, but of the three states they checked, 48, 1,800, and an unspecified amount were checked with the majority being a department that doesn't even handle immigration.


Damn I was hoping they were cross referencing deportation orders with licenses. Too bad that's not the case. It's a good idea though. If a illegal has had their case adjudicated we should be looking to see if they have a driver's license with a current address. Then go to their house and load them up on a direct flight home.

quote:

States asked undocumented people to come out of the shadows to get licenses. Then ICE turns around and uses that to find them,” said Alvaro Bedoya, the center’s director.

It’s ICE’s job to find undocumented people and deport their asses, Alvaro.

This is from a couple of days ago, I missed it some how.

the 1 million is the number of photos. Likely the number will be close to the raid planned in june.

quote:

Originally posted by DSgrouse:
This is from a couple of days ago, I missed it some how.

the 1 million is the number of photos. Likely the number will be close to the raid planned in june.

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I think he's wrong about scanning the photos. A fugitive is a fugitive period. No different than if a bank robber, robbed a bank, would he not allow them to match surveillance video to DLs?

I’m obviously confused, but it would seem if folks are here illegally they should be dealt with in accordance with the law (deported). If one is speeding and gets pulled over, does one expect anything other than the prescribed legal consequences?

I'm OK with it if it helps put criminals in jail, and I suspect it does.

Jesse,
This gives ICE their likely address!
BTW The AP wrote the article, so take that into account.

quote:

Originally posted by slosig:
I’m obviously confused, but it would seem if folks are here illegally they should be dealt with in accordance with the law (deported). If one is speeding and gets pulled over, does one expect anything other than the prescribed legal consequences?

If one is caught speeding from the scene of a bank they just robbed, I'd hope they'd be arrested and prosecuted for bank robbery too. The way some cities want it; the offender should be cited and released for the speeding violation and given sanctuary for the offense of bank robbery.

quote:

Damn I was hoping they were cross referencing deportation orders with licenses. Too bad that's not the case. It's a good idea though. If a illegal has had their case adjudicated we should be looking to see if they have a driver's license with a current address. Then go to their house and load them up on a direct flight home.

Well doing that might cause some states to stop issuing them DL

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:

quote:

Originally posted by DSgrouse:
This is from a couple of days ago, I missed it some how.

the 1 million is the number of photos. Likely the number will be close to the raid planned in june.

[FLASH_VIDEO]<iframe>[/FLASH_VIDEO]

I think he's wrong about scanning the photos. A fugitive is a fugitive period. No different than if a bank robber, robbed a bank, would he not allow them to match surveillance video to DLs?

I tend to agree with you. His arguement is that there should be a search warrant in place for this type of activity.