The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) awarded a $25 million no-bid contract last week to BI2 Technologies, a company specializing in iris scanning, significantly expanding the state's capacity for mass deportation efforts. This contract represents more than five times the amount of the company’s last DHS contract, which was awarded last fall, channeling public funds directly into corporate hands for the development of state surveillance tools.
DHS requested over 1,500 iris scanners and access to BI2’s mobile app, including its database for storing iris scans, as part of its proposal to the company. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers utilize this iris recognition technology to identify individuals during immigration enforcement and removal operations, confirming identities and backgrounds for potential enforcement actions.
Norelly Mejías Cáceres, an asylum seeker, was detained and eventually deported after federal immigration officers raided her Chicago apartment. Mejías Cáceres reported officers pointed guns at her and ordered her to leave, causing her to faint. Upon regaining consciousness, officers pointed a smartphone at her face, asking her to open her eyes wide for a photo, which a law professor believes was an iris scan.
Profiting from Displacement
BI2 Technologies, a company created 20 years ago, has a history of collaboration with state enforcement agencies, having donated iris scanners to sheriffs in the Southwestern Border Sheriffs’ Coalition during the first Trump administration. The $25 million no-bid contract awarded last week marks a substantial increase in public funding directed to the company.
The DHS budget surged in the last year, enabling the agency to acquire a range of surveillance technologies, including facial recognition tools, license plate readers, and location trackers, in addition to iris scanners. Justin Smith, executive director of the National Sheriffs Association and a former sheriff, described using BI2 iris scanners in his jail for booking and by deputies in the field, noting their utility in quickly identifying individuals in targeted immigration enforcement.
The State's Surveillance Apparatus
Nicole Hallett, a law professor at the University of Chicago and director of the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic, stated her belief that officers could only identify people by illegally arresting them and then deploying this technology. Hallett asserted that the government “knew nothing before they pointed the device at our client and were able to call up her information from the databases.” She also believed the specific instruction for Mejías Cáceres to open her eyes wide indicated an iris scan.
Cooper Quintin, a senior staff technologist with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, characterized ICE as a “very rogue agency” and raised concerns about the potential for the agency to conduct iris scannings of all detainees, adding them to a database for further surveillance. NPR has documented multiple instances of federal immigration officers taking DNA samples from individuals they arrested, including legal observers and protesters who reported peacefully exercising their First Amendment rights.
Marianna Poyares, a researcher at the Center on Privacy and Technology at Georgetown Law, questioned the oversight of these biometric databases, asking what other sensitive information is being collected, combined, and aggregated, and for what purposes. DHS stated it is using “every tool available” in its efforts to find, detain, and deport undocumented immigrants, framing the expansion of its surveillance capabilities as essential to its mission.
Human Cost of Enforcement
The experience of Norelly Mejías Cáceres, who had a pending asylum case, illustrates the violent and intrusive nature of these enforcement actions. Her detention and subsequent deportation, forcing her to live in Venezuela with her family, are direct consequences of the state's expanding enforcement machinery. While acknowledging the potential for abuse, Justin Smith framed the use of such technology as a “balance test,” a perspective that normalizes its deployment within existing power structures, rather than questioning the fundamental role of such surveillance in mass deportation.