EPIC Endorses New Bill to Ban ICE and CBP from Using Facial Recognition Technology 

EPIC is proud to endorse the ICE Out of Our Faces Act, a bill introduced by Senators Markey, Merkley, Wyden, and Jayapal that would ban any immigration officer, including Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), from acquiring and using facial recognition and other biometric identification systems.  

In the past year, ICE and CBP have used facial recognition to try to identify individuals and verify citizenship. This often violates key civil liberties and rights, including the First Amendment. Chillingly, ICE denies individuals the right to opt-out, and retains the data collected for 15 years.  

“Facial recognition is a dangerous and invasive surveillance technology, particularly in the hands of an agency that is cavalier with the law, lacks transparency, and avoids oversight. ICE’s use of facial recognition is ripe for abuse and undermines our privacy, civil liberties, and civil rights. The ICE Out of Our Faces Act is a step towards stopping the growing surveillance infrastructure that is undermining Americans’ Constitutional rights, and EPIC is proud to support it,” said EPIC’s Jeramie D. Scott, Senior Counsel and Director of the Surveillance Oversight Program. 

In addition to banning immigration enforcement’s possession and use of facial recognition, the Act also would require the deletion of data already collected for use in or by biometric systems and allow affected individuals and state attorneys general to sue over violations of the Act. 

 EPIC’s endorsement is our latest move in a long campaign to ban facial recognition. We will continue to fight back against the rights-violating technology and the surveillance dragnet it enables.