No good reason exists to secretly photograph millions of Americans. But under the paper-thin pretense of identifying non-citizens, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has launched a chilling new surveillance tool to do that.

The Mobile Fortify biometric cell phone app marks a behind-the-scenes escalation in DHS’ brutal immigrant roundups. It allows ICE and Border Patrol agents to photograph people by pointing a phone in their direction. No one can refuse being photographed, even if they are casually walking down a street. If their photo doesn’t match a record of an immigration violation, the app will be used to gather fingerprints, and no one is allowed to refuse that, either.

The data will be stored for an astonishing 15 years, regardless of citizenship status, according to DHS’ privacy assessment. No credible reason exists for federal immigration officials to keep information on non-offending citizens and legal residents for so long. DHS says it will collect and store every photograph and fingerprint.

Hits close to home

This is a national policy with a local threat.

Palm Beach and Broward counties are home to many immigrants. In Delray Beach, home to a growing Haitian-American community, there are reports of ICE agents in town. The optics of an ICE sweep in the president’s backyard in Palm Beach might keep masked agents off the streets, but it won’t stop the picture-taking.

DHS admitted that American citizens would be swept into its digital net. Already, the app may have been used to identify protesters, the independent tech news site 404 Media found.

Just as disturbing, U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi told the site that the app will be the “ definitive” determination of a person’s citizenship status — not a U.S. birth certificate.

Blindly putting faith in an app is naive. All apps have flaws. ICE’s privacy statement reveals that the app was not subject to scrutiny by DHS’ own technology experts.

Almost everything known about Mobile Fortify, including ICE’s privacy statement, comes from 404 Media, because ICE and DHS aren’t talking — another red flag.

Senators deserve answers

Nine senators wrote to ICE in September, demanding the agency stop using the app, pointing out that facial recognition is at its least reliable when identifying minorities, including Hispanics. Photos are also less accurate when taken in poor light or from the side, “exactly the kind of images an ICE agent would likely capture when using a smartphone in the field,” the senators wrote.

They demanded and deserved detailed answers about how Mobile Fortify was being used. But as of Nov. 4, they were still waiting.

ICE already stockpiles a vast trove of personal information. Only U.S. citizens and legal residents can enroll in Medicaid. But ICE was given temporary access to comb through the records of 79 million Medicaid recipients including children. ICE is also trying to gain access to IRS data that could reveal everything from mortgage payments to the names of taxpayers’ children.

“A poorly disguised end-run around privacy protections,” wrote 90-plus members of Congress in protest. They include Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Weston, Frederica Wilson of Miami-Dade, Maxwell Frost of Orlando and Kathy Castor of Tampa.

Just who is being given this extraordinary power to spy on Americans?

NBC News found some ICE recruits, already in training, have failed drug tests. Some had criminal backgrounds. Some were a blank slate: They hadn’t submitted fingerprints for background checks. Roughly half failed a constitutional law exam even though they could use textbooks. And ICE is recruiting 18-year-olds.

Under the Trump administration, ICE and Border Patrol agents have jailed and assaulted citizens and immigrants alike. They have made a mockery of the right of due process.

They simply cannot be trusted with spy technology and vast amounts of personal data.

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