- The Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement are increasing their use of Artificial Intelligence to monitor immigrants and U.S. citizens.
- Military-grade surveillance tools, including drones, facial recognition, and predictive analytics, are being deployed at protests and in communities nationwide.
- Civil liberties advocates express concerns about privacy, lack of oversight, and disproportionate targeting of minority and immigrant populations.
- Key technologies include Palantir’s ImmigrationOS, mobile device analysis, voice analytics, facial recognition, and a machine learning “Hurricane Score” predicting compliance risk.
- Experts and activists call for greater public involvement and local regulation to address potential misuse of AI-powered surveillance.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are expanding the use of artificial intelligence technologies to increase surveillance capabilities across the country. Over the past weekend in Los Angeles, a drone operated by federal authorities monitored a protest, demonstrating the growing role of AI-driven tools in domestic oversight.
Federal officials confirmed the use of advanced tools such as facial recognition, predictive analytics, and military-grade drones at public events. After the demonstration, the DHS released drone footage on its official social media accounts, highlighting how surveillance equipment is now being used for monitoring not just immigrants, but U.S. citizens attending protests.
“There are always concerns around drone use, partly due to perception,” said Grant Jordan, CEO of drone detection company SkySafe. “When an average person sees a drone, they don’t know its purpose or who’s operating it… drones are remote and ambiguous.” Agencies have also incorporated machine learning into their daily operations. According to official sources, ICE has adopted several AI systems, including Palantir’s ImmigrationOS for creating detailed profiles, mobile device analysis tools for extracting data, and voice analytics to translate and review audio evidence across languages.
One significant tool is the “Hurricane Score,” a machine learning model that predicts if an individual will appear for hearings based on previous case patterns, as described by the DHS. While officials say these technologies can improve efficiency and public safety, civil liberties groups argue that deployment often happens without sufficient transparency or public debate.
Citlaly Mora from Just Futures Law stated, “We know immigrant communities face disproportionate policing… and surveillance tech is part of a larger system of control to police their daily lives.” Jay Stanley, a policy analyst at the ACLU, emphasized the need for local community decisions, explaining, “If communities object and say, ‘We do not want the police using drones over our neighborhoods or tracking and storing our movements,’ that should be respected.”
Advocates call for more community engagement and local regulation to ensure people have a say in how surveillance technologies are used. Both ICE and DHS declined to comment further on these practices.
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