DHS Develops ICE Smart Glasses With Facial Recognition to Identify People in Real Time

Homeland Security reportedly wants to develop smart glasses for ICE

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is reportedly developing smart glasses that could be used to collect intelligence on immigrants and US citizens, journalist Ken Klippenstein reported. The devices would help ICE agents identify "illegal aliens" from a distance by capturing video and comparing it to biometric data like facial recognition and walking gait, according to budget documents seen by Klippenstein. The DHS wants to deploy the "ICE Glasses" by September 2027. "The project will 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 document states. The glasses could allow agents to compare observed subjects against existing biometric databases and identify them in real time during interactions. Such devices could help make surveillance of US residents "ubiquitous," according to the report. "It might be portrayed as seeking to identify illegal aliens on the streets, but the reality is that a push in this direction affects all Americans, particularly protestors," a DHS lawyer speaking on the condition of anonymity told Klippenstein. The deployment of such devices is worrying to civil liberty groups, particularly in light of recent law enforcement activities under the Trump administration. The FBI was reportedly directed by the Department of Justice to "compile a list of groups or entities" who demonstrate "anti-Americanism," according to a previous Klippenstein investigation. It's not the first time smart glasses have come up in reports about the DHS. An investigation by The Independent last month found that ICE and Border Patrol agents in six states were using Meta's AI smart glasses of their own accord, in possible violation of DHS rules. Congress has reportedly been notified of the DHS's Ice Glasses project but has yet to comment publicly.

ICE’s Smart Glasses Are a Worst-Case Scenario

The aversion to smart glasses is already palpable, but if there's one group that can add fuel to that increasingly hot fire, it's ICE. According to journalist Ken Klippenstein, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is developing its own pair of smart glasses designed specifically for surveilling "illegal aliens." Klippenstein reports that the project would build on existing pairs of smart glasses and use a combination of biometric databases and facial recognition to "identify people in real time." Here's the specific language used by the DHS according to budget documents viewed by Klippenstein: “The project will 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 idea is apparently so unsettling that even an attorney who works for the DHS is worried about the prospect. Here's what the unnamed source tells Klippenstein: “It might be portrayed as seeking to identify illegal aliens on the streets, but the reality is that a push in this direction affects all Americans, particularly protestors.†I don't think it takes a huge stretch of the imagination to see all of the civil rights landmines that could result from DHS' use of smart glasses, especially given ICE's piss-poor track record for operating within the law. According to a ProPublica investigation from October 2025, ICE, at the time of the report, had already detained 170 U.S. citizens, and many of those detentions have involved force, including Americans being dragged, kicked, beaten, or having their necks kneeled on. That's not even counting the fact that the prospect of coupling facial recognition with smart glasses has already become a hot-button issue, thanks to reports from the New York Times that Meta is toying with the idea for its Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses. Ironically, it's Congressâ€"specifically U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley (both D-Ore.)â€"who have helped raise awareness around the issue of facial recognition and smart glasses. I say "ironic" in this case because, as Klippenstein notes, Congress has been informed of DHS' plans but has decided not to say a single word. There are a lot of privacy pitfalls that come along with smart glasses, but the potential for their use as a tool for mass surveillance is easily one of the most harrowing. Obviously, DHS surveillance is already a thing without them, but adding cameras to the faces of every ICE agent would broaden that scope substantially. It's potentially good news for Meta, thoughâ€"they might officially cede their status as the worst entity making smart glasses.

Leak Shows ICE Planning to Use Facial Recognition Glasses to Identify Targets in Real Time

Can't-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureaucrats are reportedly planning to use specialty facial recognition glasses to collect data on Americans in real time, independent journalist Ken Klippenstein revealed. Financial statements viewed by Klippenstein point to the development of a facial recognition platform modeled after commercially available AI smart glasses, like Meta's widely-panned "pervert glasses." ICE's in-house model, it seems, will allow agents to monitor video and reference vast federal databases of biometric information on subjects regardless of if they've been arrested, or even charged with a crime. "The project will 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," read an ICE budget document leaked to Klippenstein. Perhaps most alarmingly, Department of Homeland Security insiders told the investigative journalist that the technology involved isn't limited to immigration enforcement. "It might be portrayed as seeking to identify illegal aliens on the streets," one anonymous DHS attorney told Klippenstein, "but the reality is that a push in this direction affects all Americans, particularly protestors." That reveal comes just a few months after an incident in Maine in which an ICE agent admitted to scanning protestors' faces with his phone. "We have a nice little database, and now you're considered domestic terrorists," the agent tells a couple who were out documenting the immigration agents in their community. In October, 404 Media reported that ICE agents were scanning peoples' faces in order to check whether they were citizens. These targets for surveillance are often chosen at random -- we now know that many of ICE's arrests over the past year have been circumstantial, a far cry from the targeted enforcement of known criminals the Trump administration promised. Taken together, what began as surveillance infrastructure marketed for catching illegal immigrants now seems to be coming for residents as well. ICE's smart glasses represent the next iteration of a creeping panopticon that, once in place, will be nearly impossible to uproot -- as the history of US immigration enforcement and domestic surveillance has shown us time and again.