Washington Post: ICE, FBI use state driver’s license photos for facial-recognition scans

Washington CNN — Agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the FBI are utilizing state driver’s license databases to scan through “millions of Americans’ photos without their knowledge or consent,” The Washington Post reported Sunday. President Donald Trump said last month his administration would launch a series of ICE raids sometime after the Fourth of July, and acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan on Sunday defended the practice, telling ABC “interior enforcement” is part of “balanced enforcement process.” ICE spokesman Matthew Bourke told CNN in a statement Monday the department doesn’t comment on investigation techniques, but it has “the ability to collaborate with external local, federal and international agencies to obtain information that may assist in case completion and subsequent prosecution.” “This is an established procedure that is consistent with other law enforcement agencies,” Bourke said. In a hearing before the House Oversight and Reform Committee, Del Greco told lawmakers that facial-recognition technology and practices were important “to preserve our nation’s freedoms, ensure our liberties are protected, and preserve our security.” According to The New York Times, which also obtained the documents from the Georgetown researchers, this is the “first known instance of ICE using facial recognition technology to scan state driver’s license databases, including photos of legal residents and citizens.” Harrison Rudolph, an associate at the Center on Privacy and Technology, told the Times that states “never passed laws authorizing ICE to dive into driver’s license databases using facial recognition to look for folks.” “These states have never told undocumented people that when they apply for a driver’s license they are also turning over their face to ICE,” he told the Times. House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings told the Post in a statement that law enforcement’s access to state databases is “often done in the shadows with no consent.” According to a Government Accountability Office report, the FBI has made more than 390,000 facial recognition searches since 2011.