‘We Live in a Surveillance State': Reddit Users Explode Over Reports of ICE's New Face and Fingerprint Scanning App

Gizmodo

21 hours ago

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is reportedly using a new tool called Mobile Fortify, a smartphone-based facial recognition and fingerprint scanning app that allows agents to identify people in real time using only a phone camera.
The tool taps into the same biometric system used by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at ports of entry. But ICE is now using it inside the U.S., in field operations across the country.
According to internal ICE emails reviewed by 404 Media, the app is being deployed by Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), the branch of ICE tasked with arresting and deporting undocumented immigrants. The app, reportedly called 'Mobile Fortify,' gives federal agents the power to use their phones to identify people in the field via facial recognition, a development that many online see as a horrifying leap forward for the surveillance state.
The 404 Media report has ignited outrage on Reddit, where users are voicing deep concern about how far this technology could go and what it says about the direction of American governance.
'Surveillance state in full effect,' one user posted bluntly.
'The next step is to label anyone who opposes them a terrorist or criminal, strip you of any rights and probably use unconstitutional surveillance to find any dirt on you,' warned another.
Others drew a straight line between mass surveillance and the erosion of civil liberties.
'We live in a surveillance state and anyone who believes otherwise reads too much Fox News,' said one user.
'Everyone mask up like it's COVID! We have already witnessed an attempted arrest and then release,' another user added.
Some users offered practical resistance strategies—or at least suggestions for anonymity.
'I wonder if facial ID blocking glasses, like Reflectacles, would work on this. Apparently they block iPhone facial recognition,' said one commenter.
'Definitely wear a mask (preferably ones that hide your whole head, i.e. UV Blocking Balaclava), wear sunglasses and bring an umbrella. Also bring a flashlight, headlamp, flashlight with strobing capabilities,' wrote another.
A few users expressed bitter disillusionment with the political divide over surveillance.
'Mass surveillance was something right-wingers always said they would fight against. Now that it's happening they aren't doing shit,' one user said.
'They are doing shit… they are doing the mass surveillance,' another replied, 'which is entirely made of shit.'
'They always figured that when authoritarianism came to the U.S., it would be left-wing. But since it's right-wing, they are fine with it,' added another.
The most chilling posts reflected the loss of faith in institutional leadership altogether.
'Creepy. I remember noticing this at the airport a few years ago and how it felt Orwellian. I was right.' 'Wondering how long into the police state our remaining leaders will allow the country to slip before everything burns down,' wrote one user.
'We have been wholly betrayed by everyone who vowed to serve the public besides educators and emergency service workers. I have learned nothing this year that leads me to believe anyone of means gives enough fucks to stop any of this.'
The growing backlash taps into long-standing fears that technologies built for border enforcement or national security are now being turned inward, aimed not just at suspects but potentially at anyone. Civil liberties groups have warned for years that biometric surveillance tools, especially those powered by AI and facial recognition, lack proper oversight and accountability and risk targeting marginalized communities.
Gizmodo has reached out to ICE for comment on whether Mobile Fortify is currently in use and how the agency justifies deploying such tools in domestic operations. So far, no comment.
For now, Reddit is sounding the alarm.