States Want ICE Agents to Show Their Faces; Trump Administration Blocks Them

The Trump administration has filed lawsuits against at least five states and the city of Philadelphia over laws that supporters say hold law enforcement, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, accountable for misconduct. The specifics vary, but the administration objects to provisions that prohibit ICE officers from wearing masks during immigration raids and require them to wear individual identifiers.

Lawyers for the administration argue that showing their faces would put ICE officers in danger. In complaints against New York, Virginia, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Philadelphia, they claim people take photos of officers to run them through facial recognition applications, specifically citing the art project ICESpy. However, ICESpy's creator Kyle McDonald says the software cannot recognize most current ICE agents.

ICESpy is based on LinkedIn data from nearly a decade ago. WIRED reviewed a list of just over 700 entries, mostly executives and legal staff, with only 39 listed as deportation officers and 27 in related roles. ICE has since more than doubled its agent count from 10,000 to 22,000, so new agents are not in the database.

WIRED analyzed ICESpy usage logs and found only 84 page views in a week and two face-match attempts, both unsuccessful. McDonald called the idea that ICESpy could identify active deportation officers absurd.

The federal government also cites ICE List, an accountability project. Maintainer Dominick Skinner says facial recognition use is overblown and the site relies on manual research. He notes ICE List does not post home addresses, unlike data broker sites.

State lawmakers defend their laws as necessary for accountability. Virginia state senator Saddam Salim says the DOJ should focus on training and corruption instead of challenging reasonable restrictions. Connecticut state senator Bob Duff emphasizes states' rights to respond to unconstitutional federal behavior.