The Department of Homeland Security has unveiled details about the use of Mobile Fortify, a face recognition app utilized by federal immigration agents to identify individuals in the field, including both undocumented immigrants and US citizens. This revelation came as part of the 2025 AI Use Case Inventory mandated for periodic release by federal agencies.
The inventory discloses that Mobile Fortify, in the ‘deployment’ stage for both Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), has been operational since May 2025. The vendor behind the app has been identified as NEC, a company known for its face recognition solution called Reveal that offers extensive matching capabilities against databases of any size.
NEC’s involvement in Mobile Fortify was further highlighted through a $23.9 million contract with DHS, allowing unlimited use of NEC biometric matching products for facial recognition across various hardware platforms and locations. The app assists in rapidly verifying individuals’ identities, particularly in scenarios where officers and agents face constraints in information availability and system access.
ICE emphasizes that the app can collect biometric data such as faces, ‘contactless’ fingerprints, and identity document images, which are then forwarded to government biometric matching systems for processing. Through the integration of AI, these systems conduct matches against existing records, aiding enforcement efforts.
Source: WIRED