ICE To Buy Eye-Scanning Tech That Could Identify Migrants in Seconds
Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) plans to use eye-scanning biometric systems, according to new documents.
Procurement documents published on Wednesday show that the agency is seeking to buy access to a service called IRIS, which describes itself as a "national, web-based iris biometric network."
Newsweek contacted ICE outside normal working hours for more information via email.
Why It Matters
President Donald Trump's administration has intensified efforts to remove undocumented migrants, in keeping with the president's hard-line mass deportation policy. The White House has maintained that anyone residing in the United States illegally is a criminal.
ICE has faced intense scrutiny over its conduct, becoming a focal point in the national immigration debate. The documents reflect federal agencies' increasing reliance on sophisticated biometric systems to verify identities in the field, with the technologies offering rapid verification capabilities to support enforcement and removal operations.
What To Know
Newly released procurement documents showed that ICE was in the process of acquiring mobile iris-scanning devices from BI2 Technologies, a tech firm in Massachusetts.
Its flagship products—the Mobile Offender Recognition and Information System (MORIS) and the Inmate Identification and Recognition System (IRIS)—are intended to help ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations unit verify the identities of individuals in custody and those encountered during enforcement actions.
According to manufacturer materials, the technology allows officers to authenticate identities within seconds and access criminal justice records from multiple jurisdictions once a person is enrolled in a national biometric database.
According to BI2, MORIS is compatible with iOS and Android smartphones.
Federal agents block people protesting an ICE immigration raid at a licensed cannabis farm near Camarillo, California, on July 10.
Federal agents block people protesting an ICE immigration raid at a licensed cannabis farm near Camarillo, California, on July 10.
Getty Images
Once a subject's iris data is scanned, the technology cross-references more than 265 unique iris characteristics against central registries, such as the Sex Offender Registry, Child Project and Senior Safety Net, 404 Media reported.
According to BI2, its systems can be used by law enforcement agencies across the U.S.
This marks ICE's first recorded federal contract with BI2 Technologies. Previously, ICE used biometric tools such as the "Mobile Fortify" facial recognition app, which lets agents compare images and fingerprints against Department of Homeland Security databases. Another tool, EDDIE, allows officers to capture and process fingerprints in less than a minute in the field.
What People Are Saying
BI2 Technologies said on its website: "BI2 Technologies and the nation's sheriffs have created what no other organization in the world—public or private—have been able to accomplish: the implementation of the nation's only secure, encrypted, real-time national criminal justice data sharing network, based on iris recognition technology, which enables law enforcement agencies across the country to positively identify individuals in seconds from virtually anywhere.
"The Inmate Identification and Recognition System (I.R.I.S.) positively identifies offenders using the most anatomically unique biometric—the iris. Sheriff's Offices and correctional facilities have been utilizing iris biometric recognition technology for essential responsibilities, such as arrest, inmate intake and booking, inmate release, and authentication of an individual."
What Happens Next
The specific timeline for deployment of ICE's new mobile iris scanning tools has not been publicly disclosed.
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