by David Kim

At United States border crossings, Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) wants to photograph every vehicle occupant, from drivers to back-seat passengers, using real-time facial recognition to match images with travel documents. A recent federal notice details this plan, which is reportedly intended to enhance security but has raised alarms among privacy advocates over potential surveillance overreach.

Operating under the Department of Homeland Security, CBP already uses facial recognition at airports, seaports, and pedestrian land crossings. The agency now targets vehicles, where capturing images of all passengers proves difficult due to human behavior, multiple seating rows, and environmental factors. CBP is requesting private vendors to develop technology that ensures 100 percent passenger coverage, addressing gaps in current systems.

The existing setup, tested at ports like Anzalduas along the Texas-Mexico border, photographs travelers and compares images to passports or other identity documents through one-to-one facial recognition. Matches are recorded in travelers’ crossing histories. A 152-day test from late 2021 to early 2022 showed cameras captured all occupants only 76 percent of the time, with just 81 percent of images meeting validation standards for document matching.

Dave Maass, director of investigations at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, highlighted the system’s risks. “The primary risk here,” he said, “is the system failing to recognize that someone matches their own documents.” Unlike one-to-many facial recognition, which police use and risks false positives, CBP’s approach could delay legitimate travelers. Maass noted that error rates, possibly linked to cameras or algorithms, might disproportionately impact certain racial or gender groups, though data on disparities is lacking.

CBP’s call for improved technology follows a similar 2024 request from the Department of Homeland Security’s (“DHS”) Science and Technology Directorate. Yet the focus remains on inbound vehicles, leaving outbound tracking—vital for monitoring self-deportations—unaddressed. A 2024 DHS report underscored challenges in collecting biometric data from land departures, complicating immigration enforcement efforts.

CBP’s biometric ambitions, rooted in post-9/11 mandates like the Enhanced Border Security Act of 2002, span multiple administrations. “CBP surveillance strategy carries over from administration to administration—it always falls short, it always has vendor issues and contracting issues and waste issues and abuse issues,” Maass said. A 2019 data breach involving subcontractor Perceptics, which exposed traveler images, underscored these vulnerabilities.

Recent developments highlight technology’s growing role in immigration enforcement. In December 2024, Immigration and Customs Enforcement contracted Palantir Technologies for $30 million to build ImmigrationOS, a platform tracking self-deportations using government databases, license plate readers, and tracking devices. Though separate, CBP’s facial recognition efforts contribute to an expanding surveillance network.

CBP did not respond to inquiries about addressing error rates or safeguarding data. As the agency seeks advanced solutions, concerns persist about accuracy, equity, and oversight. Travelers crossing by car now face a reality where their faces may enter a digital record, often without clear awareness, fueling debate over the balance between security and privacy.

As CBP pushes to expand facial recognition technology to every vehicle occupant at U.S. borders, the tension between national security and individual privacy increases. While the agency argues that enhanced biometric screening will close security gaps, critics warn of systemic flaws—error-prone algorithms, disproportionate impacts on marginalized groups, and a troubling lack of transparency in data handling. The 2019 Perceptics breach and ongoing concerns about accuracy and oversight underscore the risks of unchecked surveillance expansion. With DHS and private contractors like Palantir further embedding tracking systems into immigration enforcement, the stakes extend beyond border efficiency to fundamental questions of civil liberties. Without robust safeguards, clear accountability, and meaningful public debate, the pursuit of security may come at an irreversible cost to personal freedom.  

Sources: WIRED, gao.gov, cbp.gov, 404media

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