DHS wants $7.5 million to build facial recognition wearables for ICE agents. Some are already using ones off the shelf

ICE agents in at least six states have been spotted wearing Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses during enforcement operations since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term. Now, the Department of Homeland Security wants to go further by building its own smart glasses that would let agents identify people on the street in real time using facial recognition and other biometric data. The DHS is requesting $7.5 million to “develop critical technologies, analytic tools, and data systems to strengthen DHS’ ability to encounter, transport, detain, and remove individuals who are in the U.S. unlawfully,” according to the department’s fiscal year 2027 budget justification for the Science and Technology Directorate. Among those technologies is wearable tech. The funds will be used to “deliver innovative hardware, such as operational prototypes of smart glasses, to equip agents with real-time access to information and biometric identification capabilities in the field,” the budget justification shows. Facial recognition already in use ICE set a target delivery date of September 2027 for the tech, but it’s not the first time the agency has received public backlash for its surveillance technologies. Both ICE and CBP already use Mobile Fortify, a biometric app that came with a $23.9 million price tag to taxpayers, to conduct operations in the field. Agents photograph someone’s face or capture contactless fingerprints in the app, which, in turn, runs the data against both state and federal databases, including DHS’ IDENT system (which alone contains more than 270 million biometric records), the State Department’s visa and passport photos, the FBI’s National Crime Information Center, and state driver license records. According to a January 2026 lawsuit brought by the State of Illinois and City of Chicago against DHS and former Secretary Kristi Noem for the agency’s surveillance actions in the city, Mobile Fortify had been used more