ICE Is Using Facial Recognition App to Hunt Immigrants in Real Time

ICE’s new Mobile Fortify app lets agents ID anyone with a tap, using border surveillance tech on American streets

The Trump administration just gave ICE agents a new tool, and it fits right in their pocket.

It’s called Mobile Fortify, and according to internal emails obtained by 404 Media, it turns a government-issued smartphone into a real-time biometric scanner. ICE officers can now point their phones at someone and instantly run facial recognition or fingerprint matches.

No warrant. No paperwork. No need for a name. Just a face and the misfortune of walking past an agent with 5G. And yes, they’re using it everywhere.

From Border Tech to Street-Level Scanning

Mobile Fortify was built using Customs and Border Protection’s Traveler Verification Service, a system originally designed to screen people at airports and land crossings. It compares live photos to a database of biometric images, including passport and visa records, plus past CBP encounters.

Now ICE is using that system on American streets.

The app also taps into the Department of Homeland Security’s Seizure and Apprehension Workflow, an intelligence aggregator that connects facial scans to any derogatory information ICE or CBP has on file. Officers can also run a “Super Query”, giving them access to additional databases like passenger vetting logs and immigration history.

This isn’t just a surveillance app. It’s a portable, real-time deportation engine.

All of This, Just to Hit a Quota

Trump’s immigration crackdown doesn’t just rely on fear. It relies on metrics. In May, the administration gave ICE a new goal: 3,000 arrests per day.

That’s not a suggestion. It’s a quota. Because nothing says due process like gamifying human rights violations.

Mobile Fortify helps make that quota possible. The app gives ICE officers the ability to scan anyone they encounter, even if that person has no identification and no prior record. Internal ICE emails explicitly say the tool is for identifying “unknown subjects in the field.” Fingerprint matches are said to be more reliable than facial scans, but both are included. All an agent needs is a phone and a face.

That should terrify anyone living in an immigrant community, especially in cities like Los Angeles, where ICE has ramped up raids and increased coordination with local law enforcement.

The Agents Doing the Scanning Are Hiding Their Own Faces

Here’s what makes it worse. The same ICE officers scanning civilians are going out of their way to stay anonymous.

Across protests, raids, and field operations, ICE personnel have been seen wearing neck gaiters, ski masks, baseball caps, and sunglasses to shield their identities. In many cases, they’ve refused to confirm which agency they work for. They show up armed, mask their faces, and detain people without identifying themselves.

They look less like federal agents and more like extras from a rejected Call of Duty expansion pack.

That secrecy is now being exploited. In Philadelphia, a man impersonated ICE to rob an auto shop. In Brooklyn, someone posing as immigration enforcement attempted to sexually assault a woman.

When federal officers operate like an unmarked militia, the public cannot tell who is legitimate and who is a threat. ICE has defended the disguises by claiming assaults on officers have surged more than 400 percent. But according to The Washington Post, those numbers are questionable at best.

What’s not sketchy is ICE’s love of anonymity while they build tools that strip yours away.

The Public Is Fighting Back With Their Own Tools

While ICE rolls out facial recognition to target immigrants, the public is responding with technology of its own. No federal contracts. No secret databases. Just smartphones, open records, and a whole lot of pissed-off users.

ICEBlock: The Waze of Deportation Watch

One of the most direct tools is ICEBlock, a mobile app that works like Waze—but instead of speed traps, it flags immigration raids.

With over 30,000 users, ICEBlock lets anyone report ICE sightings, tag the location on a map, and include details about what they saw. Anyone within a five-mile radius gets a push alert.

The app’s slogan? “See something, tap something.” Simple. Direct. And apparently threatening enough that ICE publicly complained about it.

Officials called the app “controversial.” But what’s really controversial is ICE scanning civilians in secret, while getting mad that civilians are documenting what they can already see in plain view.

ICEBlock doesn’t hack anything. It doesn’t tap into DHS databases. It just uses community reporting because when the government won’t give people a heads-up, they’ll give it to each other.

fucklapd.com: Face Scanning the Police

Then there’s fucklapd.com, a site built by artist Kyle McDonald that lets users upload a photo of a police officer and match it against a public database of more than 9,000 LAPD headshots. The images were obtained through public records requests. No scraping. No third-party data. Just transparency.

And the First Amendment, apparently available for ten bucks a year.

If the tool finds a match, users can see the officer’s name, badge number, and salary. All image processing happens locally on the user’s device. The site was launched in response to LAPD officers showing up at anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles with their names and badges covered. Because nothing says accountability like a tactical balaclava.

If the government won’t identify who’s enforcing its policies, the public will.

ICEspy: LinkedIn Meets Surveillance Reversal

Next up is ICEspy, a tool originally launched in 2018 by Kyle McDonald, designed to do for ICE agents what ICE does to civilians…identify them by photo.

Built using publicly available LinkedIn profile pictures, ICEspy attempts to match faces of ICE personnel to their online profiles. It originally ran using Microsoft’s facial recognition API, until Microsoft cut off access. McDonald later relaunched the tool to run locally, though the database is now outdated and its accuracy has dropped. He has since posted on Twitter that he’s seeking help updating the image archive.

The goal isn’t harassment. It’s visibility. Besides, if ICE doesn’t want to be recognized online, maybe they should stop uploading headshots to LinkedIn like it’s a modeling portfolio for authoritarian cosplay.

If ICE can use facial recognition to detain civilians, those civilians should be able to identify the agents responsible.

Surveillance Is No Longer a One-Way Mirror

For years, ICE and other federal agencies have used facial recognition to increase their power and obscure their accountability. They built the infrastructure to track and target people across borders, then repurposed it to patrol neighborhoods and protests.

But now that same technology is being used against them.

Activists and journalists are using public records, open-source data, and low-cost tools to identify the people enforcing harmful policies while hiding behind masks. The government turned smartphones into biometric weapons. The public turned them into flashlights.

If ICE can ID you with a tap, you should be able to ID them too. And if that makes them uncomfortable, they might want to ask themselves why. Or take their own advice and stop doing anything they wouldn’t want filmed in public.

And if that still doesn’t sit right—maybe it’s time to choose a new profession.