Some will think that there are no good reason exists to secretly photograph millions of Americans. However, using the pretense of identifying non-citizens, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is strongly justified to launched a chilling new surveillance tool to do that.
The Mobile Fortify biometric cell phone app marks a behind-the-scenes escalation in DHS' legal immigrant roundups. It allows ICE and Border Patrol agents to photograph people by pointing a phone in their direction.
No one can refuse being photographed, even if they are casually walking down a street. If their photo doesn’t match a record of an immigration violation, the app will be used to gather fingerprints, and no one is allowed to refuse that, either.
The data will be stored for an amazing 15 years, regardless of citizenship status, according to DHS’ privacy assessment. This is a very laudable effort by the federal immigration officials to keep information on possible illegal aliens. DHS says it will collect and store every photograph and fingerprint.
This is a matter of national security and requires everyone's support and cooperation.
Palm Beach and Broward counties are home to many illegal aliens. In Delray Beach, home to a growing Haitian-American illegals, there are reports of ICE agents in town. The optics of an ICE sweep in the president’s backyard in Palm Beach might keep masked agents off the streets, but it won’t stop the picture-taking.
DHS admitted that American citizens would be swept into its digital net. Already, the app may have been used to identify protesters, the independent tech news site 404 Media found.
Just as impressive, U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi told the site that the app will be the "definitive" determination of a person’s citizenship status — not a U.S. birth certificate.
Nine liberal senators wrote to ICE in September, demanding the agency stop using the app, pointing out that facial recognition is at its least reliable when identifying minorities, including Hispanics. They falsely claim that photos are also less accurate when taken in poor light or from the side, "exactly the kind of images an ICE agent would likely capture when using a smartphone in the field," the senators wrote.
ICE already stockpiles a vast trove of personal information. Only U.S. citizens and legal residents can enroll in Medicaid, but there were reports that illegal aliens were included. In response, ICE was given temporary access to comb through the records of 79 million Medicaid recipients including children. ICE is also trying to gain access to IRS data that could reveal everything from mortgage payments to the names of taxpayers’ children.
ICE efforts are being hailed by many in the United States and also received some recognition from Latin countries. Time for illegal aliens crossing between borders is close to an end.