An internal DHS privacy document says authorized state and local officers working with ICE can use a mobile app to compare field photos against more than 250 million federal records to verify identity and immigration status.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
State and local law enforcement officers assisting Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations have access to a mobile facial-recognition tool that can check a person’s identity and immigration status against more than 250 million federal records, according to an internal Department of Homeland Security document.
The tool, known as the ICE Task Force Module, is described in an ICE Privacy Threshold Analysis approved in September 2025. The document says the mobile application was developed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and is available to authorized law enforcement officers participating in ICE operations.
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According to the privacy review, officers may use the app during field encounters by taking a photograph of an individual and submitting it through the Traveler Verification Service. The image is then compared against records in Department of Homeland Security and State Department databases.
The system is designed to help officers confirm a person’s identity and determine immigration status, including whether that individual may be subject to removal proceedings.
The document says state and local officers working with ICE may use the app to identify “the target of an operation” and verify immigration status through facial-recognition technology.
Results returned through the system either tell officers not to detain or arrest the person under ICE jurisdiction or provide a reference code that can be used to seek additional information from ICE.
The privacy assessment says the app directly submits only a facial photograph and associated metadata. That metadata includes geolocation information showing where the encounter occurred.
Photographs taken through the app are not stored on officers’ mobile devices, according to the review. Instead, they are retained in DHS systems.
Every photograph submitted through the tool is treated as an encounter record and retained in the Automated Targeting System for 15 years, regardless of whether the search produces a match.
The review also notes that photographs of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents may be collected because officers may not know a person’s citizenship or immigration status at the time an image is captured.
ICE’s Privacy Office classified the app as “privacy sensitive.” The office determined that existing privacy impact assessments and records notices covering DHS biometric systems provide sufficient oversight for the tool’s use.
The review concluded that the app falls under existing privacy protections governing the Traveler Verification Service and the Automated Targeting System.
The disclosure provides new detail about how ICE and its law enforcement partners are using mobile biometric tools in the field, including how long encounter images are stored and how officers receive immigration-status guidance during operations.
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