US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is planning to enhance its border surveillance procedures by photographing every individual exiting the United States by car. This initiative aims to capture images of passengers at border crossings and match their faces with travel documents such as passports and visas.
The CBP’s proposal reflects an effort to document how many individuals are self-deporting, a measure the Trump administration has been actively promoting for those residing in the U.S. illegally. Currently, the agency has a system in place for photographing individuals entering the U.S. and is looking to apply a similar protocol for those leaving, particularly at crossings to Canada and Mexico.
Jessica Turner, a spokesperson for CBP, confirmed that although a timeline for implementing this outbound monitoring is not available, the aim is to "biometrically confirm departure from the US." Turner mentioned that while there isn’t currently a specific plan to track self-deportations, future actions could potentially align with the administration’s focus on this.
CBP has recently sought proposals from technology firms to devise methods that guarantee comprehensive facial recognition capabilities at border entries, including within vehicles, as previous trials showed inconsistent results.
Unlike CBP, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) lacks any known systems for tracking self-deportations beyond a mobile app that allows individuals to report their departures. ICE has announced plans to develop a surveillance tool, dubbed ImmigrationOS, with the help of Palantir Technologies, reportedly for $30 million. This system aims to provide data on real-time self-deportations but details on its data sources remain vague.
While the Department of Homeland Security has faced challenges in obtaining biometric data from land travelers, there are indications that the proposed outbound facial recognition system could integrate with the information managed by ICE and its associated tools.
The Trump administration’s push for self-deportation has intensified recently, exemplified by the revocation of legal statuses for over half a million migrants and government incentives for individuals to leave the country.
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