The Department of Homeland Security is seeking assistance from the U.S. private sector to conduct face recognition scans on drivers and passengers approaching the southern border, as per a document reviewed by The Intercept.
Despite the challenges faced by face recognition technology, DHS aims to develop a way to capture images of travelers while their vehicles are in motion.
According to a document titled “Request for Information” issued by the DHS Science and Technology Directorate, the government is interested in private sector help to perform face recognition on occupants of vehicles as they approach land border checkpoints. The document states, “[DHS] Tech Scouting is seeking information on technology solutions that can capture biometric data (e.g., facial recognition) of occupants present in vehicles at speed as they approach land border checkpoints. Solutions should be able to scan occupants without them exiting the vehicle and provide checkpoint agents with information to assess if they pose a threat or can enter the United States.”
The document does not specify how this system would determine if individuals in a vehicle are a threat to the United States, although previous pilot programs have checked if drivers had a history of arrests. Vendors presenting their solutions to DHS may be invited for further testing, as per the document.
DHS and Customs and Border Protection did not provide a comment when requested.
Dave Maass, director of investigations at the Electronic Frontier Foundation and a researcher of border surveillance technologies, emphasized the intrusive nature of face recognition on personal privacy.
As CBP cites various acts of Congress, they claim a legislative mandate to expand biometric identity checks across land, air, and sea. Face recognition cameras have become a common sight at major American airports, allowing travelers to opt-out for now.
CBP has tested face recognition cameras at border crossings since 2016 to quickly verify the identities of drivers and passengers without them leaving their vehicles. The agency outsources the comparison of ID photos to a computer. In 2018, DHS added face recognition cameras to lanes at the Anzalduas International Bridge. However, in 2019, officials reported that the program had ended, with limited tests continuing in 2021.
According to agency documents, DHS has faced challenges in remotely identifying drivers. A 2024 report by the DHS Office of Inspector General highlighted the government’s struggle to capture facial images of vehicle travelers in real-time.
A 2022 postmortem document on the Anzalduas test obtained by the EFF and shared with The Intercept indicated that while the objectives were met, only about 80% of the images captured were usable, prompting suggestions to increase the number of images taken.
“How many found themselves subjected to prolonged, yet unwarranted, secondary inspection?”
The documents underline the challenges of face recognition technology, particularly in outdoor border settings where obstacles like reflections, masks, and weather conditions affect accuracy.
The 2022 postmortem document cites a high accuracy rate in matching individuals to their ID photos, but questions remain about the impact of errors on travelers and potential biases.
As DHS seeks industry help for surveillance, the 2022 document serves as a warning about the complexities involved.
In 2019, Perceptics, a company that provides license plate-scanning technology to CBP for use at checkpoints, fell victim to a hack. The breach exposed that the company had removed unauthorized copies of traveler image personally identifiable information (PII) and transferred it to their corporate servers. Following the incident, CBP conducted an assessment of additional data protection and insider threat security controls to prevent similar breaches in the future, but it is unclear which measures were actually implemented.
The hacked files also contained emails from Perceptics CEO John Dalton, who mentioned in a message to a lobbyist that CBP did not have the same privacy concerns at the border as other agencies do inland.
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