SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
ICE Used Facial Recognition to Mine State Driver's License Databases
WASHINGTON — Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have mined state driver's license databases using facial recognition technology, analyzing millions of motorists' photos without their knowledge.
In at least three states that offer driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants, ICE officials have requested to comb through state repositories of license photos, according to newly released documents. At least two of those states, Utah and Vermont, complied, searching their photos for matches, those records show.
In the third state, Washington, agents authorized administrative subpoenas of the Department of Licensing to conduct a facial recognition scan of all photos of license applicants, though it was unclear whether the state carried out the searches. In Vermont, agents only had to file a paper request that was later approved by Department of Motor Vehicles employees.
The documents, obtained through public records requests by Georgetown Law's Center on Privacy and Technology and first reported on by The Washington Post, mark the first known instance of ICE using facial recognition technology to scan state driver's license databases, including photos of legal residents and citizens.
Privacy experts like Harrison Rudolph, an associate at the center, which released the documents to The New York Times, said the records painted a new picture of a practice that should be shut down.
[...] He continued: "These states have never told undocumented people that when they apply for a driver's license they are also turning over their face to ICE. That is a huge bait and switch."
The use of facial recognition technology by law enforcement is far from new or rare. Over two dozen states allow law enforcement officials to request such searches against their databases of driver's licenses, a practice that has drawn criticism from lawmakers and advocates who say that running facial recognition searches against millions of photos of unwitting, law-abiding citizens is a major privacy violation.
The F.B.I., for example, has tapped state law enforcement's troves of photos — primarily those for driver's licenses and visa applications — for nearly a decade, according to a Government Accountability Office report. The bureau has run over 390,000 searches through databases that collectively hold over 640 million photos, F.B.I. officials said.
[...] The Seattle Times reported last year that Washington State's Department of Licensing turned over undocumented immigrants' driver's license applications to ICE officials, a practice its governor, Jay Inslee, pledged to stop. And a lawsuit in Vermont filed by an activist group cited documents obtained under public records law that showed that the state Department of Motor Vehicles forwarded names, photos, car registrations and other information on migrant workers to ICE, Vermont Public Radio reported this year.
The relationship between Washington's Department of Licensing and ICE officials may prove to be particularly interesting to privacy experts because of a law the State Legislature passed in 2012 stipulating that the department could use a facial recognition matching system for driver's licenses only when authorized by a court order, something ICE did not provide.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday July 09 2019, @01:46PM (2 children)
We agree on one thing: the founding fathers would roll over in their graves, if they could see America today. Take the anchor baby issue, for example. The author of the 14th amendment, for instance, would choke over the idea of "anchor babies".
https://www.14thamendment.us/articles/anchor_babies_unconstitutionality.html [14thamendment.us]
So, are we ready to end the practice of granting citizenship to every baby who falls out while his mama happens to be trespassing on US soil?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 15 2019, @10:55AM (1 child)
Where do American born individuals, who are being kept as sex slaves, never reported to the government, so they have no official government papers and kept in rural or isolated communities (not always rural) fit in? This may seem like a hypothetical, but I've polled enough people recently to understand it is an actual problem in the US. Under current attitudes they are devoid of constitutional rights. If they are also brown or black, I imagine the situation is even worse for them. Since they aren't documented citizens, do they get shuffled off to Mexico? Canada? Europe? Africa? Do they end up incarcerated in some shithole? Do they just get sold off to rich assholes thanks to leaving no papertrail even an FOIA act will help track down?
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday July 15 2019, @11:58AM
By "American born individuals" do you mean the children of citizens, or the children of illegal aliens? https://www.14thamendment.us/articles/anchor_babies_unconstitutionality.html [14thamendment.us] A strict reading of the constitutional amendment, as the author and the legislators intended it would rescue the children of citizens, and deport the children of aliens. That kind of sucks, so I would grant citizenship to those children of aliens found in that predicament.
And, no, your question isn't all that hypothetical. There have been children found in New York City in such circumstances. Haven't seen 'Zumi in awhile, but she referenced such a case, IIRC. It seems the victims in that case were Asian, but I'm no longer sure about that.
The PERPETRATORS of those crimes should be tried on capital charges, if you ask me. And, it wouldn't matter to me at all if the perps were citizens or aliens. The VICTIMS should be helped as much as possible.