ICE Acquires Mobile Iris Scan Tech for Deportation Operations
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is poised to acquire advanced mobile iris scanning technology, marking a significant expansion of its biometric capabilities for deportation efforts. The agency has announced its intent to issue a sole-source purchase order to BI2 Technologies for licenses to its Mobile Offender Recognition & Identification System (MORIS) and Inmate Recognition & Identification System (I.R.I.S.). This move signals an escalation in ICE’s reliance on sophisticated surveillance tools, drawing immediate concern from civil liberties advocates.
The MORIS and I.R.I.S. systems, developed by Massachusetts-based BI2 Technologies, were originally designed to assist sheriff’s offices in quickly identifying individuals already in custody or known to law enforcement. MORIS is described as a handheld, mobile system compatible with Apple, Android, and Microsoft platforms, allowing law enforcement to identify offenders and access their criminal history, including mugshots, state and federal IDs, aliases, and arrest details, in seconds from virtually anywhere with cell service. It boasts the ability to positively identify individuals enrolled in the I.R.I.S. national database and provide arrest and incarceration history in less than a second. I.R.I.S. is touted as the “only national, web-based iris biometric network,” working in tandem with MORIS to facilitate real-time data sharing across criminal justice agencies. Iris recognition itself is a highly accurate biometric method, utilizing the unique patterns of an individual’s iris, which are stable over time and difficult to spoof. This technology captures high-resolution images of the iris using near-infrared illumination to extract distinct features, converting them into a digital template for rapid comparison against databases.
ICE’s planned acquisition of these systems for its Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) section, which spearheads deportations, extends a long-standing trend of the agency integrating cutting-edge surveillance technology into its operations. This follows previous reports of ICE’s significant investments in mobile surveillance tools, phone hacking technology, and facial recognition apps like Mobile Fortify, which leverages government biometric databases for on-the-ground identification. Critics have consistently warned that such tools, including those that integrate diverse data points from vehicle registrations to phone numbers, create detailed dossiers that can include sensitive information such as immigration status and criminal history.
The expansion of ICE’s biometric capabilities, particularly with highly accurate iris scanning, intensifies concerns about privacy, civil liberties, and the potential for algorithmic bias. Civil liberties organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Electronic Frontier Foundation, have raised alarms over the lack of transparency, legal oversight, and accountability mechanisms surrounding ICE’s use of biometric and AI-enhanced systems. They argue that these technologies are being deployed without explicit Congressional authorization or meaningful public debate, transforming databases designed for public service into tools for punitive enforcement without consent or oversight. The fusion of various data sources, including those from the Social Security Administration and IRS, with ICE’s biometric ecosystem creates a comprehensive surveillance capability that critics contend is extraordinarily difficult to monitor or challenge.
The move to acquire MORIS and I.R.I.S. further embeds ICE into a vast and growing U.S. biometric surveillance infrastructure, enabling faster and more widespread identification of individuals for potential deportation. This ongoing technological arms race by immigration enforcement agencies raises fundamental questions about the balance between national security and individual rights, particularly for non-citizens and potentially even U.S. citizens caught in the dragnet of expanding surveillance.