Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the FBI have been accessing DMV databases for driver’s license information and photos for facial recognition, without the license holder’s knowledge or permission from Congress, according to a report from the Washington Post.
This under-the-table breach of privacy provides the agencies with a new source of information on people, and also as a way to potentially track both criminals as well as those who have never committed a crime at all.
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The FBI and ICE unknowingly scanned millions of licenses between 2014 and 2017, and have had access to photos through American’s DMV files in states like Washington, Vermont, and Utah. These states are notable since they offer driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants.
Drew Harwell of the Washington Post was interviewed Monday night on CBSN about his report. He said lawmakers at the state and federal level did “little handshake deals” that allowed the scanning of driver’s licenses. He explained:
“They kind of did little handshake deals called ‘memorandums of understanding,’ where the FBI would sort of say to the DMV official, ‘Let’s work together and if I need to hopefully find somebody from your records … maybe I can email you or send you a court order or subpoena … or some sort of piece of paper that will allow me to scavenge through your records.”
“This is interesting, though, because we have as American voters often pushed back against a national registry of identities and yet what these investigators have done has effectively created that by sealing these state relationships and helping them gain this huge surveillance power.”1
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The report shows how quickly facial recognition technology has become an important part of law enforcement in the United States and is the first known case of ICE agents utilizing facial recognition technology to scan driver’s licenses for crime and surveillance reasons. Apparently it is also being used to find people guilty of minor crimes such as theft or check cashing.
The Government Accountability Office published a report last month that indicates twenty-one states permitted the FBI to scan through their DMV databases. The report also notes that since 2011, the FBI has listed more than 390,000 facial recognition searches that include DMV databases.
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Many wonder what exactly is ICE is doing with the information they obtain from the DMV. It is unclear if their search requests have led to undocumented immigrants being deported. Matt Bourke, an ICE spokesman stated he could not comment on investigative tactics, tool, or techniques due to law-enforcement sensitivity, however, he did say that:
“during the course of an investigation, ICE has the ability to collaborate with external local, federal and international agencies to obtain information that may assist in case completion and subsequent prosecution. This is an established procedure that is consistent with other law enforcement agencies.”1
Both Democrats and Republicans have objected to reports that indicate that ICE and the FBI are accessing driver’s license photos and information. At a hearing on the issue last month, Elijah Cummings, House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman, said:
“This technology is evolving extremely rapidly, without any, really, safeguards, whether we are talking about commercial use or government use. There are real concerns about the risks that this technology poses to our civil rights and liberties, and our right to privacy.”1
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Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said at a hearing last month on the topic of facial recognition:
…most Americans have yet to be aware or give consent to use their images for facial recognition purposes.
“No individual signed off on that when they renewed their driver’s license, got their driver’s licenses. They didn’t sign any waiver saying, ‘Oh, it’s okay to turn my information, my photo, over to the FBI.’ No elected officials voted for that to happen.”1
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Several states offer driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants. But with the news coming out about this breach of privacy, many now believe they information used to get a license is being accessed by ICE agents. Harrison Rudolf, an associate at Georgetown commented that these states have never share with undocumented immigrants that once they apply for a license their picture will be turned over to ICE adding that the process appears to be “a huge bait and switch.”1
