ICE and CBP Agents Are Scanning Peoples’ Faces on the Street To Verify Citizenship
He also said “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. 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.”
https://www.404media.co/ice-and-cbp-agents-are-scanning-peoples-faces-on-the-street-to-verify-citizenship/Open linkView original on slrpnk.net593
Comments97
This reeks of bullshit by ICE, they can't verify citizenship from a face, because AFAIK there is no database of citizenship faces.
It is way more likely to be run against for instance criminal arrest photo databases.
There may be other segments they can take from like military and DMV, but they can't say that because they don't have a photo match that people aren't citizens.
It can only in a very limited percentage of cases confirm citizenship, and most of those will be people who have papers like a drivers license on them already.
This is probably part of the ongoing scare campaign, and serves very little practical purpose.
The “facial recognition” might just do this:
Yup Caucasian features color good. The rest of ya'll are fucked.
I guess we can never make jokes again.
TSA has been scanning people's faces at security checkpoints for several years now. I've been opting out every time because I figured building a facial recognition database was the end goal.
Sure, sure, until they start doing it and no one stops them.
Oh I didn't think of airports. Thanks for pointing that out.
They'll do whatever the fuck they want, nobody is really stopping them.
Yes there are attempts and local heroes that do, but from an official side very little is being done.
And any official that complains about it, immediately becomes a target for the administration.
This fear campaign is far from only against immigrants, it is also to pacify Americans.
DMV, court house, tax offices, post offices, Ring...
All of Facebook and Twitter and Youtube via Palantir?
Apart from DMV that I already mentioned, they don't have pictures of your face.
Opting out how? They have automatically-assembled video footage of you from the moment you stepped out of the vehicle you took to the airport up until the moment you walked off the jetway onto your flight.
Oh, that's true, but I'm talking about the direct face scan they do at the security line, which you have the right to opt out of.
There's still a big difference between security camera shots at a distance with random lighting and a specifically designed face scanning camera pointed directly at your face from two feet away with good lighting.
I wish I shared your optimism, but I’ve seen what cameras are capable of seeing from literal miles away, if enough money is spent. I guess it comes down to weather or not any of the uncountable trillions of dollars the pentagon won’t let you audit have been spent on cameras specifically meant to surreptitiously capture your face from across the room when you “opt out”.
"Opt Out" is basically just a "Pweeese don't scan my face 🥺", it doesn't have legal weight, I mean this admin doesn't really follow rules anymore.
No, in this case it literally means you don't stand in front of the face scanner and have your face scanned. I'm talking about going through the airport security line, where they have the face scanner device.
https://sh.itjust.works/comment/20888451
What about the face scans through TSA and customs? I assumed those were going into every 3 letter agencies databases.
It's very likely that they're using a facial recognition database made up of photos from immigration. People on visas, people who've been previously deported, etc.
Dude it doesn't matter if it's legitimate or not, it will just be used as a cudgel against "undesirables" including political opponents.
*Palantir enters the chat
100% This. This is entirely bullshit. This is likely illegal.
You can't do a fascism!! That's illegal!
Get some AI to cross reference real name social media like Facebook with genealogy apps like Ancestry and you could make a citizenship facial scan app. There would be a lot of false positives, but as long as it's non-white people, this administration doesn't care.
Don't know how legal it is for govt usage, but people have been uploading photos to Meta for more than a decade at this point, directly associating their image with their identity.
YouTube, Twitter, Insta...
Even if there was, facial recognition isn't that good. A photo taken with a phone is just going to give you some level of confidence.
Its just an excuse, especially cause we know most facial recognition systems are racist to begin with.
Well I mean, I do have a Certificate of Citizenship from N-600 that has a photo of me on it. USCIS probably has it in their system.
But that photo was when I was like 13 or something, idk how they would even match that face. I have a photo ID (not "Real ID" compliant tho) that does have a recent photo, so do they looked that up? Do they even have access to DMV records?
Or is it gonna be:
?
Better check your papers are still legit, they have no problems throwing people out even on a minor technicality.
Or even better find somewhere else that isn't as much driven by hatred and sociopathy.
Too late, my entire family is in the US, we have strong ties here.
My paternal grandfather, 3 aunts, cousins, friends of my mother, the entire 关系 (Guanxi) relationship network, its all here. PRC is just hopeless which is why we left in the first place. We have no relatives in Canada or Europe or Australia, so this is why we are all here. I no longer have PRC Citizenship either way since they automatically revoked it after gaining US citizenship, on top of that I criticized the CCP too much, the bridge is already burned. Literally all my family assets are in the US...
"Just move lol" is not a realistic solution for most people. I mean, its almost impossible to find a democratic country that will accept us.
All the national intelligence agencies have a database with an entry for every person they can gain any information about. So yeah, a photo and citizenship status are in a govt database for sure.
Doesn't the NSA have exabytes (at a minimum) of data scrapped from the internet?
So?
So we're not all that removed from a database of citizens and their faces. The work of actually collecting that information is already done, it's just a matter of organizing it. And there are already private contractors who specialize in just that kind of data organization.
Snowden already showed us the database exists over a decade ago.
how is everyone forgetting face scanning phone unlocks?
taking your AI face scan for meta logins, and other various websites services.
yep those too but how does this preclude my point?
we’ve been giving them our face and name for years
Interesting how it is the cowards hiding behind their masks scanning peoples' faces.
What would it take to scan/image through cloth masks?
You joke but the answer is actually a OnePlus 8 Pro.
Hmm, seems like it's just missing the low IR cutoff filter, so you could mod any dSLR to do the same. I can't tell if it sees through masks well enough for facial recognition though.
Facial recognition probably relies on visible wavelengths, but you could probably train a neural network to plausibly convert an IR image to visible if paired with a visible light image of the unmasked portion. While generated images on their own aren't useful for recognition, I think an IR image would probably give enough information to make the generation useful.
All face recognition is unreliable though, so no one, especially not a government agency, should use it as a single point of proof about the actual identity of the photographed person.
TSA and Customs both scan your face instead of your ID/ passport now for adults. It seems like the government has confidence in it?
They know who you claim to be and are checking whether your face matches that passport photo. They're not just letting anyone in who looks like one of the 330M Americans.
It does not.
Unlikely, without special enhancement. Those materials are not IR-transparent.
@[email protected] care to explain what’s inaccurate about this statement?
Firstly, you should say please when you're asking for something.
The claim was made as if they know exactly the materials the thugs' gaiters are made of. Unless they are an insider of that group, it's way too presumptuous.
Common natural or synthetic fabrics aren't as effective at blocking modern facial recognition as anyone might assume.
Here's a couple examples of someone putting in a bit of effort to actually test both common and purpose-built products against facial recognition.
Nothing, it’s not magic. Anyone telling you otherwise is either a lying huckster or a colossal dumbass.
they are would be vulnerable to the same AI face scan as thier VICTIMS, people would have to be bold to pull down thier masks and let cameras record them.
Afraid of, or confessing a desire to inflict upon others?
"if we want to do it the other side surely wants to do it to us!" Lol
Yeah but they were afraid of it being used on them in the fictional war on Christianity. Its perfectly fine when it’s used on someone else.
people need to start, on the street, trying to collect DNA off of ICE/CBP and storing it for future use
Collect their blood
or just steal their masks
We should start to pull their masks off. Seriously. Get a crowd a people big enough to protect the ones pulling them off.
No law enforcement should be masked.
I'd be afraid to do it because they'd kill me. What do you propose
They would at the very least arrest you and charge you with assault on a law enforcement officer, a felony.
Unless you run really fast, then you get a free punisher facemask
And some acute lead poisoning in the back
it sounds like pulling masks off ICE isn't a realistic option
I would never say that it was
Now they have a way to effectively revoke someone's citizenship. All they have to do is change your status in the app to "noncitizen." No need to go through the court. Just have some code that lets them flag citizens as noncitizens. They want you gone? Just flag your identity in the app as a foreign national. The agents in the field then scan your face and it reports you as an illegal immigrant. You object and show them all your legal documents, but they've been told the app is infallible. You're taken to detention, and the guards there simply scan your face and report you as an illegal every time you protest. "The app is infallible" they repeat. Before you have a chance to challenge it in court, you've rotting in a prison camp in rural Liberia.
The same app that has been plagued by facial recognition issues since its inception.
Fuck it, just don’t open the door. Ask for a real warrant signed by a judge and to see their ID, not a badge. Any chuckle fuck can buy a fake ICE badge for 50 bucks.
If they refuse or argue, call the cops and say there are masked men loitering on your property and you fear for your safety.
If they try to enter, well I’ll leave that up to each Individual here, but I know what my situation is and what I have to lose. I’m not going to some camp to get disappeared, and I’m not letting anyone else in my family go either.
And now all ring devices will automatically scan faces for them. https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/16/amazons-ring-to-partner-with-flock-a-network-of-ai-cameras-used-by-ice-feds-and-police/
Jesus christ this is scary.
The ice issue exists to make palantir money.
Stop-and-frisk/Terry Stops are apparently legal in Illinois, and in most states, if an officer has reasonable suspicion which (as not-a-lawyer) I think taking the picture to run facial recognition counts as a frisk. The current temporary ruling is that existing with brown skin is a reasonable suspicion of illegal immigration crime to this Supreme Court.
So, really, all you can do is give your real name, ask for a lawyer and ask if you are being detained or if you may leave the area. If you're let go, calmly notify others in person and online of ICE activity. If you're being arrested, get others' attention by raising your voice letting people know to get their badge and plate numbers.
Did Nazi Germany actually make a law that made being Jewish illegal? Or did they just do all the persecution without a legal basis?
Seems to me that ICE is moving further and further away from an actual legal basis for their activities, ignoring civil rights based on very questionable argument that the suspects are not citizens, although obviously many of the people they confront are.
Also even if they aren't citizens doesn't mean they don't have rights, except in a fascist country that ignores human rights.
But the idea that only citizens have rights, is a huge argument for staying far away from USA as for instance a tourist and for business travel too.
They started by booting all Jews from civil service, and then continued taking away rights, month by month.
So the Nazis actually changed the laws! Trump seems to be skipping that step, but instead make USA a lawless country on top of being fascist.
I missed the part in the fourth amendment that mentions citizens.
I don't think the legality of the sitiation matters. If the app makes a mistake, you could end up in a cell or on a flight with none of your comms for help. And that's if you have anyone who can help. If I were a US citizen, I'd wear a mask on me, put it on and move in the opposite direction of any law enforcement I encounter.
When the regime falls, ICE agents are going to learn how easily they are identified, and brought to justice.
As it turns out, assaulting citizens and trampling their basic human rights, makes them get very, very good at crowd sourcing and building databases of ICE agent information.
They're collecting a paycheck, it should be easy to prosecute the ones who break the law.
Presumably, the right people are compiling that data now, to get ahead of the inevitable frantic attempt to scrub the records.
They literally aren’t getting paid. That’s how shitty and racist they are. They’re willing to ruin their lives for free, on the odd chance they get to zip tie little girls.
Me in 2026, being face scanned, then the Clanker goes "All y'all Asians look the same, DETAIN". 💀
The 21st century version of "Ihre Papiere, bitte."
They wear masks, but we have to be identified. Looks like it's time to mask up again.
it's time for a bit more than just masking up...
https://web.archive.org/web/20251029151347/https://www.404media.co/ice-and-cbp-agents-are-scanning-peoples-faces-on-the-street-to-verify-citizenship/
Right now it's only going to be used to identify citizenship, but eventually it will gain wider use, such as to identify those peacefully participating in protests.
You go to the latest No Kings Rally, and by the end of the week, ICE is arresting you in your 7th grade classroom, in front of your students, who you've been teaching about the 1st Amendment.
lol gotta wear facial prosthetics now
Is this the real reason the RWA chuds were taught to hate masks? So they could make them illegal as soon as possible?
https://archive.ph/goBQM
How much can make up fool biometrics? Like can I use dollar store make up to change my face?
Some. The easier way is failing face detection
this is why ICE covering up thier faces, they are at risk of being identified by AI recognition as well.
maybe wear a nasal strip to change the shape of the nose
It is kinda scary and exciting, if you have been in City 17
This isn't a videogame you chud.
Exciting? Go fuck yourself
Sucks to be you, as you seem to be very scared. You should go and get some professional help.
Already ahead of you, bud.
Right back at you.
Don’t waste time on me, you should rather focus on hiding from ICE.
Edit: I was about to block you, because that’s what I do with all from that instance, and I realized you were managing to post 13.8k comments in 16 months. That’s 28 comments a day on average. Maybe some time off-screen would do good for you.
Thanks for the stats, could not really care less about what you think about me.
I like that you're trying to pretend you had a reason to tell me this. As if it makes any sense that this would be a reason not to block me lol.
"I was going to block you, but then I saw you post a lot of comments." Makes sense dude.