\ud83d\udcc4This article was primarily reported using public records requests. We are making it available to all readers as a public service. FOIA reporting can be expensive, please consider subscribing to 404 Media to support this work. Or send us a one time donation via our tip jar here.Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) plans to give potentially more than a thousand local law enforcement agencies a facial recognition app that would query a database of hundreds of millions of images to verify someone\u2019s immigration status, according to an internal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) document obtained by 404 Media.The app would be a dramatic escalation in the technology being used to carry out the Trump administration\u2019s mass deportation agenda. ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) are already using Mobile Fortify, a facial recognition app that taps into a wide array of DHS and other government databases, on U.S. streets, stopping people and scanning their faces. With that app, ICE officers point their phone camera at a person, the app scans their face, and the app returns a wealth of biographical information and whether they have been issued an order of removal. The app has made mistakes and been used against American citizens.With this second app, much of that capability would now be in the hands of local police who essentially have become extensions of ICE.\u201cThis embarrassingly cursory document utterly fails to acknowledge the harms that will flow from putting a flawed face recognition app in the hands of many thousands of local police,\u201d Nate Wessler,\u00a0deputy director with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, told 404 Media. \u201cSending local cops out to indiscriminately scan our faces, with a system that is known to generate false matches, that saves our data for 15 years, and that ensnares police into making immigration decisions that they are untrained for and that will undermine community safety efforts, is a recipe for disaster and for terrorizing members of communities across the country. DHS\u2019s privacy regulators fell down on the job. Now it\u2019s up to lawmakers to ensure this dangerous technology stays off our streets.\u201d\ud83d\udca1Do you know anything else about this app? Are you a current or former ICE or CBP employee? I would love to hear from you. Using a non-work device, you can message me securely on Signal at joseph.404 or send me an email at joseph@404media.co.\u201cThese ICE non-federal officers will use the TFM [Task Force Module] app during an encounter to verify the target of an operation\u2019s identity, and if warranted, investigate and determine the target\u2019s immigration status (i.e., whether the individual is subject to removal) through facial recognition,\u201d the document reads.The name of the app is the \u201cICE Task Force Module App (TFM App),\u201d according to the document. When an officer scans someone\u2019s face, the app will run their face against a database of more than 250 million DHS and State Department records, and then provide instructions to the officer. Either \u201cnot detain or arrest under ICE jurisdiction,\u201d or the app will provide a reference code the officer can use to get additional information from ICE.A screenshot of the document. Image: 404 Media.404 Media previously reported the existence of Mobile Identify, which appears to be the same app under a different name, in November. It was removed a short while later from the Google Play Store and has not returned. The new document also mentions making the app available through the Apple App Store.It is not clear when, or if, ICE or other DHS components will roll out the app to local police. DHS did not respond to a request for comment, and the document lists the launch date as September 24, 2025. But the new document describes in detail the plan behind giving this facial recognition app to local police.\u00a0\u201cThe collection of face images allows ICE non-federal law enforcement officers to verify identity and immigration status (whether the individual is removable),\u201d the document adds. ICE acknowledges in the document that the app may be used on U.S. citizens. \u201cIt is conceivable that a photo taken by an ICE non-federal law enforcement officers using the TFM mobile application could be that of someone other than a removable individual, including U.S. citizens,\u201d it reads.A screenshot of the document. Image: 404 Media.\u201cICE non-federal law enforcement officers do not know an individual’s citizenship when first encountered and will use the TFM mobile application to determine or verify the individual’s identity and confirm that they are a match to CBP TVS,\u201d it reads. TVS is the Traveler Verification Service, the CBP system usually used to verify people entering the country at ports of entry, but which ICE has now turned inwards onto American streets.The app is designed for members of the 287(g) program, an ICE initiative that grants local and state police certain immigration enforcement powers. It \u201cessentially turns police officers into ICE agents,\u201d according to the New York Civil Liberties Union. More agencies have joined the program recently, including Texas\u2019s Highway Patrol. At the time of writing, 1,220 agencies in 32 states and 2 U.S. territories participate in the program, according to ICE\u2019s website.\u00a0These are the agencies that would potentially be given access to the app, as the document points specifically to 287(g) as the legal basis of the app.\u00a0\u201cThis document confirms our worst fears about the spread of ICE’s abusive surveillance technology. Face surveillance was already a dangerous infringement of civil liberties in the hands of ICE agents,\u201d Cooper Quintin,\u00a0security researcher and senior public interest technologist\u00a0with the EFF, told 404 Media. \u201cPutting it in the hands of ICE’s local partners will subject even more Americans to omnipresent surveillance and unjust detainment.\u201dAfter 404 Media revealed the existence of both Mobile Fortify and Mobile Identify, a group of six democratic lawmakers proposed legislation that would rein in the apps, and entirely kill the local enforcement version.\u00a0404 Media obtained the document through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with CBP. 404 Media previously obtained a similar document from CBP for Mobile Fortify. That document said ICE believes people cannot refuse to be scanned by its app.At a recent border security conference, Matthew Elliston, assistant director of Law Enforcement Systems & Analysis at ICE, said Mobile Fortify has been used more than 200,000 times, multiple attendees of the conference told 404 Media.Based on comments from that conference and an DHS source, 404 Media reported that ICE plans to develop its own smartglasses to \u201csupplement\u201d its facial recognition app.Update: this piece has been updated with comment from the EFF.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"