ICE agents have been accused by the courts in Illinois of using facial recognition on minors who are US citizens without consent
A lawsuit filed [1] by the State of Illinois and the City of Chicago details an incident in which one agent reportedly enquired if the teenager can do a facial. The second agent then allegedly pointed a mobile phone at the teenage boy, seemingly taking a photo of his face. This incident, documented through sworn allegations rather than body camera footage, highlights a significant change currently facing legal examination as mobile facial recognition technology increasingly permeates everyday interactions with minors, moving beyond the confines of border areas and the regulated environments that [2] the Department of Homeland Security has historically relied upon to support the use of biometric identification.
The lawsuit filed against the Department of Homeland Security, or DHS, along with its component agencies, [3] Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE and Customs and Border Protection, claims that these bodies have established an illegal interior enforcement system characterized by coercive stops and the frequent use of mobile biometric technologies. One of the key allegations is that DHS agents have employed facial recognition technology on US citizen minors without their consent, individualized suspicion, or adequate public restrictions on data retention and sharing.
The case revolves around the Department of Homeland Security's [4] implementation of Mobile Fortify, a field-deployed [5] application that scans fingerprints and conducts facial recognition. This application compares the collected data against various DHS databases, including the Customs and Border Protection’s Traveller Verification Service, Border Patrol systems, and the Office of Biometric Identity Management’s Automated Biometric Identification System.
The lawsuit references [6] a DHS Privacy Threshold Analysis indicating that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents may utilize Mobile Fortify when they encounter an individual or their associates. The analysis notes that agents may not ascertain an individual's citizenship at the initial encounter and therefore use Mobile Fortify to establish or confirm identity. According to the lawsuit, the same document allows for the collection of identifiable information without regard to an individual's citizenship or immigration status, recognizing that images captured could include US citizens or lawful permanent residents. Additionally, the lawsuit claims that DHS retains biometric data acquired through Mobile Fortify for up to fifteen years, irrespective of citizenship or age.
Should this assertion be validated, it raises concerns that children who experience brief encounters with law enforcement could maintain a biometric record into their adulthood without facing charges, arrests, or even suspicions of wrongdoing. The implications of using facial recognition technology on minors are particularly significant, not only due to the technology itself but also because of the stark discrepancies between current practices and DHS’s own established guidelines, as well as previous oversight recommendations regarding transparency and accountability. The DHS policy acknowledges age as a protected category; however, it does not provide explicit safeguards for children.
In September 2023, the Department of Homeland Security [7] released Directive 026-11, which provides a framework for the use of face recognition and face capture technologies across the department. The directive specifies that DHS “does not collect, use, disseminate, or retain” facial recognition data based solely on protected characteristics, such as age, and identifies these technologies as inherently sensitive to privacy concerns. However, the directive falls short of establishing specific safeguards for the use of facial recognition on minors. It does not require parental notification or consent, does not set shorter retention periods for juvenile data, and lacks a child-specific proportionality analysis. This gap raises significant issues as facial recognition technology expands from regulated environments to potentially coercive situations in public spaces, where minors may find it difficult to opt out or provide meaningful consent when approached by law enforcement.
The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board’s 2025 staff report [8] on the Transportation Security Administration's use of facial recognition technology revealed that Directive 026-11 was no longer accessible on the Department of Homeland Security’s website. The DHS could not confirm to the Board whether the directive remains an official policy. As a result, the Board recommended that DHS either restore the directive and publicly affirm it as the controlling policy or issue a similar directive. Additionally, a lawsuit in Illinois and Chicago asserts that DHS rescinded Directive 026-11 on or before February 14, 2025.
On September 2025, Ed Markey, [9] a US Senator for Massachusetts, wrote a letter to Todd M. Lyons, [10] the Acting Director US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, warning him about [11] the civil liberties violation of facial recognition technology and his distress of Mobile Fortify. “Although US immigration authorities have previously used biometric scanning technology at the border and ports of entry, ICE now appears to have deployed the technology on American streets. ICE has reportedly developed an app known as Mobile Fortify, about which it has released little information, including its purposes or limitations. The app reportedly allows agents to point a smartphone at an individual’s face or fingerprints and identify the individual based on a biometric match against several federal databases, including the Customs and Border Protection’s Traveler Verification Service and the Seizure and Apprehension Workflow databases,” said Markey.