ICE facial recognition app reportedly stores face photos for 15 years, document says

# ICE facial recognition app reportedly stores face photos for 15 years, document says

An internal Department of Homeland Security document obtained by 404 Media says Immigration and Customs Enforcement does not let people refuse to be scanned by its new facial recognition app, Mobile Fortify, and that face photos collected through the system can be stored for 15 years.

The report says the app is used to verify a person’s identity and immigration status. It also says the retention policy applies regardless of immigration or citizenship status, meaning that photos of U.S. citizens can be stored in the same system if they are captured during the process described in the document.

The evidence supplied for the story is a 404 Media report based on the DHS document, so the key claims are not coming from a public ICE policy page or a formal agency announcement in the packet. That means the strongest verifiable detail here is what 404 Media says the internal document contains: a no-refusal scanning process, a 15-year retention period, and a description of how Mobile Fortify is used operationally.

The report adds that the document offers new details about the data flow behind the app and DHS’s reasoning for using it. It also references an earlier 404 Media story saying that both ICE and Customs and Border Protection were scanning faces in the street to verify citizenship.

Because the supplied evidence is limited to a single report, the story should be read as a claim about DHS practice rather than as a fully public policy statement from the agency. Even so, the implications are significant. If the document accurately reflects current practice, the system reaches beyond standard identity checks and into long-term biometric retention for people encountered by immigration enforcement.

The retention period is especially sensitive because face images are not like ordinary contact data. A photo stored for years can be linked later to other databases, reused in different enforcement contexts, or kept long after the encounter that produced it. The supplied report says the document covers those issues, but the packet does not include a public DHS response, so no additional agency justification can be confirmed here.

For readers, the most important confirmed point is narrower: 404 Media says the document shows people cannot decline the scan, and that the app stores images for 15 years. Everything else should be treated as dependent on that internal source until DHS releases a fuller public explanation or another credible outlet corroborates the details.