Federal agents are actively using facial recognition technology in the field to identify people and their immigration status during stops that seem to have little justification beyond the color of someone’s skin. That’s according to a report in 404 Media, which cites several videos in which masked federal agents are seen using smartphones to photograph people after demanding they show IDs. In this example, a Border Patrol agent confronted a pair of teenagers in Chicago.
Border Patrol agent: “Man, if you just tell me you were born here and give me an ID, you’ll be good.”
Teenager: “I was born here, but I don’t got ID.”
Border Patrol agent: “You don’t have no ID?”
Teenager: “No.”
Border Patrol agent: “Can you do facial?”
“Can you do a facial,” one of the masked federal agents said to another. It’s not clear what smartphone app the agents were using. 404 Media previously reported immigration agents have been using Mobile Fortify, an app built on a database of 200 million images, which can return the subject’s name, date of birth, alien number and whether they’ve been given an order of deportation.











