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"ICE Out of Our Faces Act" would ban ICE and CBP use of facial recognition [arstechnica.com]:

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A few Senate Democrats introduced a bill called the ‘‘ICE Out of Our Faces Act,” which would ban Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) from using facial recognition technology.

The bill [senate.gov] would make it “unlawful for any covered immigration officer to acquire, possess, access, or use in the United States—(1) any biometric surveillance system; or (2) information derived from a biometric surveillance system operated by another entity.” All data collected from such systems in the past would have to be deleted. The proposed ban extends beyond facial recognition to cover other biometric surveillance technologies, such as voice recognition.

The proposed ban would prohibit the federal government from using data from biometric surveillance systems in court cases or investigations. Individuals would have a right to sue the federal government for financial damages after violations, and state attorneys general would be able to bring suits on behalf of residents.

The bill was submitted yesterday by Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), who held a press conference [youtube.com] about the proposal with Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), and US Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.). The Senate bill is also cosponsored by [congress.gov] Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

“This is a dangerous moment for America,” Markey said at the press conference, saying that ICE and CBP “have built an arsenal of surveillance technologies that are designed to track and to monitor and to target individual people, both citizens and non-citizens alike. Facial recognition technology sits at the center of a digital dragnet that has been created in our nation.”

Jayapal said, “This is a very dangerous intersection of overly violent and overzealous activity from ICE and Border Patrol, and the increasing use of biometric identification systems. This has become a surveillance state with militarized federal troops on our streets terrorizing and intimidating US citizens and residents alike.”

There probably isn’t much chance that the Republican-majority Congress will vote to ban the use of facial recognition by ICE and CBP. The Markey bill goes beyond demands sent to Republicans [house.gov] yesterday by House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).

Jeffries and Schumer’s list of demanded ICE reforms did not include a ban on facial recognition, but said body-worn cameras should be used “for accountability, not tracking,” and that ICE should be prohibited from “tracking, creating or maintaining databases of individuals participating in First Amendment activities.” Markey separately demanded [arstechnica.com] earlier this week that Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons confirm or deny the existence of a “domestic terrorists” database that lists US citizens who protest Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Immigration agents have used face-scanning technology [arstechnica.com] on people who protest or observe ICE activity. An ICE observer in Minnesota recently said in a court filing that her Global Entry and TSA PreCheck privileges were revoked [arstechnica.com] three days after an incident in which an agent scanned her face.

In another recent incident [x.com] in Portland, Maine, a masked agent told an observer who was taking video that “we have a nice little database and now you’re considered a domestic terrorist.” A CNN report [cnn.com] last week said a memo sent to ICE agents in Minneapolis told them to “capture all images, license plates, identifications, and general information on hotels, agitators, protestors, etc., so we can capture it all in one consolidated form.”

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