United States | News & Politics

According to Georgetown’s report, ICE’s surveillance reach extends into datasets covering a large share of the U.S. adult population. The authors estimate ICE has used face recognition to search driver’s-license photos for about 1 in 3 U.S. adults (32 percent), has access to driver’s-license data for about 3 in 4 adults (74 percent), can track vehicles in cities home to about 3 in 4 adults (70 percent), and can locate about 3 in 4 adults through utility-linked address data.

“It is a mistake to think about what the Trump administration is doing now as ‘immigration enforcement,’” the report states. “Trump is using immigration powers as the vehicle for the activities of his militarized police force, which is currently composed of ICE and CBP agents, as well as local police who have been officially or unofficially deputized to do the bidding of the federal government.”