The Department of Homeland Security is rapidly expanding its biometric surveillance capabilities with a $25 million no-bid contract for iris scanning technology, raising alarm among civil liberties advocates about mass collection of sensitive personal data from detained individuals, including those later found to have valid asylum claims.
The contract, awarded last week to BI2 Technologies, represents more than five times the value of the company's previous DHS agreement from last fall. Under the arrangement, DHS requested more than 1,500 iris scanners and access to the company's mobile app database where iris scans are permanently stored. The agency stated that ICE officers use iris recognition technology "to assist in accurately identifying individuals encountered during immigration enforcement and removal operations, including confirming identities and backgrounds of individuals who may be subject to enforcement actions."
Technology Deployed in Controversial Raids
The scanning technology appears to have been used during a dramatic Chicago apartment raid that resulted in the detention and eventual deportation of Norelly Mejías Cáceres, who had a pending asylum case. Mejías recounted being with her husband and first grade son when a Black Hawk helicopter filled with federal immigration officers descended on her building. Officers pointed guns at her family and ordered them out. After fainting during the raid, Mejías said officers pointed a smartphone at her face. "They asked me to open my eyes wide for the photo, so I did. I opened my eyes wide for the camera," she said. Mejías is now living in Venezuela with her family.
Nicole Hallett, a law professor at the University of Chicago and director of the Immigrants' Rights Clinic, said she believed officers wanted more than just a facial image. "There were other people who were arrested during this raid who reported having a photo taken of them and then having details about them known to the officers. Norelly is the one that we were most certain was an iris scan because of the detail about how she needed to open her eyes," Hallett said.
Hallett raised fundamental concerns about the practice: "The only way they were able to identify people was to illegally arrest them and then use this technology in order to identify them." She added, "This is troubling because we really want law enforcement to be targeting particular people about which it has particular information. And here the government knew nothing before they pointed the device at our client and were able to call up her information from the databases."
Privacy Experts Sound Alarm
Cooper Quintin, a senior staff technologist with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, questioned the scope of data collection. "This agency has already proven themselves to be a very rogue agency," he said, asking, "Could ICE start doing iris scannings of everybody they detain and then add that to their database and use that for further surveillance? Yeah, absolutely." NPR has documented multiple cases of federal immigration officers taking DNA samples from people they arrested, including legal observers and protesters who said they were peacefully exercising their First Amendment rights.
Marianna Poyares, a researcher at the Center on Privacy and Technology at Georgetown Law, said biometrics can be used simply for identification, such as airport security, but the implications change when sensitive information is stored alongside other sensitive information. She asked, "What else is being collected? Is there any kind of oversight as to who is overseeing these databases? What kind of data is being combined and aggregated and for what use?"
Irises contain intricate patterns that are unique to each person, similar to a fingerprint. Sheriffs have used the technology for decades, and a video on BI2's YouTube channel says the company was created 20 years ago. During the first Trump administration, BI2 donated iris scanners to sheriffs in the Southwestern Border Sheriffs' Coalition, a group of sheriffs serving counties along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Law Enforcement Perspective
Justin Smith, executive director of the National Sheriffs Association, said he used BI2 iris scanners in his jail for booking when he was the sheriff in Larimer County, Colorado. He described it as a camera device mounted on a pole that detainees looked into when they arrived at the jail, with the captured image going into a database. Smith said his deputies also used BI2's smartphone app in the field to identify people. He said it was particularly useful when officers were looking for someone specific who did not have identification, because the only other option would be to take the person into custody to do fingerprints, which takes time.
Smith said he could see how identifying someone quickly could be helpful in targeted immigration enforcement. "They're trying to quickly identify within a large group, 'who do we have here?'" Smith said. "It allows them to clear up people: 'Hey, we know who this person is. This is not the person you're looking for.'"
However, Smith also acknowledged risks. He said any technology that can access someone's private information has the potential to be abused, and that how law enforcement should use a tool depends on acknowledging that. "I would say it's a balance test. It's not a black and white, always this, never that," he said. "It's a matter of: How is it used?"
DHS said it is using "every tool available" in its efforts to find, detain and deport undocumented immigrants. As its budget surged in the last year, the agency has collected facial recognition technology, license plate readers and location trackers, among other tools.
Why This Matters:
The rapid expansion of biometric surveillance technology raises fundamental questions about privacy protections and oversight in immigration enforcement. When sensitive biological data is collected from individuals during raids—including those with pending asylum claims and even bystanders exercising constitutional rights—without clear legal frameworks or independent oversight, the potential for abuse grows substantially. The case of Norelly Mejías Cáceres illustrates how technology can facilitate enforcement actions against individuals with valid legal claims, while the broader collection of iris scans, DNA samples, and other biometric data creates permanent databases that could be used for expanded surveillance. The lack of transparency about data retention policies, access controls, and the aggregation of multiple biometric identifiers across government databases creates risks that extend far beyond immigration enforcement, potentially affecting anyone caught in enforcement operations regardless of their legal status or constitutional protections.