Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is reportedly using a new tool called Mobile Fortify, a smartphone-based facial recognition and fingerprint scanning app that allows agents to identify people in real time using only a phone camera.
The tool taps into the same biometric system used by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at ports of entry. But ICE is now using it inside the U.S., in field operations across the country.
According to internal ICE emails reviewed by 404 Media, the app is being deployed by Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), the branch of ICE tasked with arresting and deporting undocumented immigrants. The app, reportedly called “Mobile Fortify,” gives federal agents the power to use their phones to identify people in the field via facial recognition, a development that many online see as a horrifying leap forward for the surveillance state.
The 404 Media report has ignited outrage on Reddit, where users are voicing deep concern about how far this technology could go and what it says about the direction of American governance.
“Surveillance state in full effect,” one user posted bluntly.
“The next step is to label anyone who opposes them a terrorist or criminal, strip you of any rights and probably use unconstitutional surveillance to find any dirt on you,” warned another.
Others drew a straight line between mass surveillance and the erosion of civil liberties.
“We live in a surveillance state and anyone who believes otherwise reads too much Fox News,” said one user.
“Everyone mask up like it’s COVID! We have already witnessed an attempted arrest and then release,” another user added.
Some users offered practical resistance strategies—or at least suggestions for anonymity.
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