DELL CAMERON SECURITY FEB 20, 2026 3:03 PM DHS Wants a Single Search Engine to Flag Faces and Fingerprints Across Agencies Homeland Security aims to combine its face and fingerprint systems into one big biometric platform—after dismantling centralized privacy reviews and key limits on face recognition. Kristi Noem, secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), has overseen the agency's immigration crackdown.PHOTO-ILLUSTRATION: WIRED STAFF; AARON SCHWARTZ/GETTY IMAGES Get our Tracker: ICE newsletter to see what’s happening with immigration enforcement and what’s coming next SIGN UP By signing up, you agree to our user agreement (including class action waiver and arbitration provisions), and acknowledge our privacy policy. You’ve read your last free article. The intersection of technology, power, and culture. Start your free trial and get access to 5 all-new premium newsletters—cancel anytime. START FREE TRIAL Already a subscriber? Sign In The intersection of technology, power, and culture. Start your free trial and get access to 5 all-new premium newsletters START FREE TRIAL You Might Also Like In your inbox: Upgrade your life with WIRED-tested gear A wave of unexplained bot traffic is sweeping the web Big Story: The women training for pregnancy like it’s a marathon Iran’s digital surveillance machine is almost complete Listen: Silicon Valley tech workers are trying to stop ICE Dell Cameron is an investigative reporter from Texas covering privacy and national security. He's the recipient of multiple Society of Professional Journalists awards and is co-recipient of an Edward R. Murrow Award for Investigative Reporting. Previously, he was a senior reporter at Gizmodo and a staff writer for the Daily ... Read More SENIOR REPORTER, NATIONAL SECURITY TOPICS DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION IMMIGRATION FACE RECOGNITION PRIVACY SURVEILLANCE BIOMETRICS Don't Just Keep Up. Get Ahead Sign up for the Daily newsletter to get our biggest stories, handpicked for you each day. SIGN UP By signing up, you agree to our user agreement (including class action waiver and arbitration provisions), and acknowledge our privacy policy. READ MORE CBP Signs Clearview AI Deal to Use Face Recognition for ‘Tactical Targeting’ US Border Patrol intelligence units will gain access to a face recognition tool built on billions of images scraped from the internet. DELL CAMERON ICE and CBP’s Face-Recognition App Can’t Actually Verify Who People Are ICE has used Mobile Fortify to identify immigrants and citizens alike over 100,000 times, by one estimate. It wasn't built to work like that—and only got approved after DHS abandoned its own privacy rules. MADDY VARNER Here’s the Company That Sold DHS ICE’s Notorious Face Recognition App Immigration agents have used Mobile Fortify to scan the faces of countless people in the US—including many citizens. MADDY VARNER ICE Is Using Palantir’s AI Tools to Sort Through Tips ICE has been using an AI-powered Palantir system to summarize tips sent to its tip line since last spring, according to a newly released Homeland Security document. CAROLINE HASKINS DHS’s Data Grab Is Getting Citizens Kicked Off Voter Rolls, New Complaint Says As states check voter registration against a mashup of federal data, a new complaint says US citizens are getting kicked off state voter rolls as a result. VITTORIA ELLIOTT DOGE May Have Misused Social Security Data, DOJ Admits Plus: The FAA blocks drones over DHS operations, Microsoft admits it hands over Bitlocker encryption keys to the cops, and more. MADDY VARNER DHS Opens a Billion-Dollar Tab With Palantir “If you are interested in helping shape and deliver the next chapter of Palantir’s work across DHS, please reach out,” a Palantir executive wrote to employees about the massive purchasing agreement. MAKENA KELLY Social Security Workers Are Being Told to Hand Over Appointment Details to ICE The recent request goes against decades of precedent and puts noncitizens at further risk of immigration enforcement actions. VITTORIA ELLIOTT ICE Asks Companies About ‘Ad Tech and Big Data’ Tools It Could Use in Investigations A new federal filing from ICE demonstrates how commercial tools are increasingly being considered by the government for law enforcement and surveillance. CAROLINE HASKINS Metadata Exposes Authors of ICE’s ‘Mega’ Detention Center Plans Comments and other data left on a PDF detailing Homeland Security’s proposal to build “mega” detention and processing centers reveal the personnel involved in its creation. MADDY VARNER More Than 800 Google Workers Urge Company to Cancel Any Contracts With ICE and CBP The campaign is among the largest anti-ICE protests by workers at a single company since federal agents shot and killed two people in Minneapolis last month. PARESH DAVE US Judge Rules ICE Raids Require Judicial Warrants, Contradicting Secret ICE Memo The ruling in federal court in Minnesota lands as Immigration and Customs Enforcement faces scrutiny over an internal memo claiming judge-signed warrants aren’t needed to enter homes without consent. DELL CAMERON