U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was granted permission to access millions of photographs from Maryland driver’s licenses.
The agency is using facial recognition technology to examine driver’s licenses issued in Maryland, without obtaining court or state approval. The Washington Post reports that 275,000 licenses were issued to state residents since the state’s defiance of federal immigration guidelines in 2013. And per state law, illegal immigrants are allowed to apply for licenses without providing proof of insurance. The technology would potentially allow ICE to identify illegal immigrants who have obtained licenses.
A Maryland law enforcement official told state representatives in November 2019 that ICE conducted approximately 100 sessions of searches in the state’s driver’s license database since 2018. The searches give the government agency access to information from 7 million drivers, including names, addresses, and other personal information.
Some immigration advocate groups have criticized the agency’s moves to counter illegal immigration.
“Having a license was something that was won and past, but now it’s opened up this vulnerability,” said Lydia Walther-Rodriguez, the Baltimore-area director for immigration rights group CASA. “After the victory occurred, there was a lot of trust that was given to the state. Now it’s the state’s responsibility to ensure that trust is not lost.”
“It’s a bait-and-switch. … ICE is using biometric information in the shadows, without government notice or public approval, to hunt down the most vulnerable people,” said Harrison Rudolph, a senior associate at Georgetown University Law School’s Center on Privacy and Technology.
Reports indicate its unclear when the federal agency began its searches into Maryland. Democratic state Sen. Clarence Lam, however, said he suspected the efforts began during the Obama administration in 2012.
Other agencies can examine driver’s license information, though states typically give permission. Twenty states permit the FBI, for example, to run searches on hundreds of thousands of people since 2011, according to the Government Accountability Office.
[Also read: Appeals court OKs Trump move to withhold millions from ‘sanctuary’ areas that won’t help ICE]
