ICE spends $4M on facial recognition to identify alleged offenders

09 September 2025 , 21:02

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ICE spends $4M on facial recognition to identify alleged offenders

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recently spent nearly $4 million on facial recognition technology to help identify individuals involved in assaults against law enforcement officers.

The contract, valued at $9.2 million, was awarded to Clearview AI, a company known for creating a massive database of images scraped from social media and public websites.

Clearview’s technology allows law enforcement to upload a photo and receive potential matches with the person’s identity. ICE has previously worked with Clearview, but this new contract explicitly mentions using the software to identify people allegedly assaulting officers. Critics have expressed concern that the technology could be used to track protesters and infringe on First Amendment rights.

ICE officers often wear masks during operations, citing increased assaults as justification, though the exact data behind these claims is unclear. The FBI has already used facial recognition to identify suspects in alleged assaults on ICE personnel, such as Robert Jacob Hoopes, who was arrested for allegedly striking an ICE officer with a rock and damaging a building in South Portland.

Elizabeth Baker

Technology & Business Editor