How a US Citizen Was Scanned With ICE's Facial Recognition Tech

You're walking home from the gym when you're stopped by FBI officers in an unmarked car. They handcuff you, even though you tell them you're a US citizen. Then, they scan your face. 23-year-old Jesus Gutiérrez recounts his experience to Reveal News and 404 Media:

Because Gutiérrez’s didn't have his ID on him, the agents resorted to taking a photo of his face. A short while later, the agents got their answer: “Oh yeah, he’s right. He’s saying the right thing. He does got papers,” Gutiérrez recalled the agents saying.

404 Media previously obtained internal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) emails revealing the agency’s facial recognition app, called Mobile Fortify, and catalogued social media videos showing agents scanning people’s faces to verify their citizenship. In October, 404 Media also learned that ICE *does not* let people decline to be scanned by the facial recognition app. The app runs images against a bank of 200 million images.

“You just grabbing, like, random people, dude,” Gutiérrez said he told the agents after they scanned his face. The officials eventually dropped off Gutiérrez after driving for around an hour.

In Gutiérrez’s case, there is little indication that he was stopped for any reason beyond the color of his skin. He is of Mexican descent, he said. Stops of people based on their race, use of Spanish, or location (such as a car wash or bus stop) have become known among critics as “Kavanaugh stops."

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