ICE’s new smart glasses promise surveillance superpowers. Will they be used against citizens next?

Big Tech is betting big on XR glasses — that’s “extended reality” — as the hot new thing that will captivate users around the world. Meta was among the first to introduce smart glasses in collaboration with Ray-Ban, and now Apple, Google, and Samsung are expected to unveil their competing products soon. Although smart glasses have yet to gain the same mass public appeal as the smartphone, ICE thinks XR is exactly the tool it needs to speed up illegal alien identification and deportation.

DHS prepares to put smart glasses on ICE

ICE agents are reportedly tapping into the newest cutting-edge technology to aid in the fight against illegal immigration. Predictably, the deportation agency’s biggest critics are up in arms. According to independent left-wing journalist Ken Klippenstein, DHS is planning to outfit ICE agents with extended-reality smart glasses by September 2027. Instead of choosing an option off the shelf from a Big Tech brand that’s already in the space, DHS has notified Congress that it wants to develop its own solution, complete with features designed to help agents in the field.

This same technology could be used and abused to surveil the American public at large.

The aptly named “ICE Glasses” will include cameras that can record video, analyze data in real time, and display useful information to the wearer through an eye lens. The glasses will search for key biometric information that can identify a suspected illegal alien or criminal, including facial features and their walking pattern. These details are then sent to a federal database that contains known information on illegal aliens and criminals, cross-referenced for matches, and then a final determination is relayed back to the agent to either make an arrest or let the person go free.

The goal of ICE Glasses is to provide real-time awareness to agents by helping them identify illegal entities and deport them faster than ever. Unfortunately, as civil libertarians have warned broadly for decades, there are some potential consequences to using this kind of tech in public. Let’s zoom out and take a broader look.

3 reasons ICE Glasses are a good thing

First, let’s dive into the benefits of outfitting ICE agents with smart glasses.

1. Deportation fast lane: Agents can expedite deportations by identifying illegal aliens in seconds. The big benefit here is that agents don’t have to take the time to check federal databases themselves; it all happens automatically.
2. Agent safety: ICE Glasses will keep agents safer by marking known dangerous illegal aliens and criminals in the heads-up display, letting agents know when they need to be more cautious or vigilant when approaching a suspect.
3. Safer streets: If this initial test goes well, the technology found in ICE Glasses could be beneficial to local law enforcement. Police officers could wear similar glasses to identify wanted criminals and other dangerous entities roaming their streets, leading to a safer America.

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3 reasons ICE Glasses are bad for the American public

Now that the good stuff is out of the way, let’s get into several reasons why the ICE Glasses could be a problem for the American people.

1. Citizen surveillance: First and foremost, there’s a high likelihood that ICE Glasses will scan the faces of illegal immigrants and American citizens. After all, the only way to confirm a suspect’s status is to run their information. In this way, ICE Glasses could become a mass surveillance tool that captures and processes the biometric data of every American citizen that passes by an agent.
2. User errors: There will likely be some mistakes. If a person is marked down incorrectly in the federal criminal database, ICE Glasses may erroneously flag a suspect, possibly leading to false arrests.
3. Abuse of power: With great power comes great repsonsibility … and the potential for abuse. ICE Glasses would give agents immense power to record, document, and analyze vast swathes of data. Yes, illegal immigrants are the target, but these smart glasses can technically “see” and monitor anything the agent sees. While we may trust the current administration to do the right thing with this technology, leftists will return to power in the future, and a left-wing government will have the ability to target its own idea of a national threat, such as white males, traditional homemakers, and Christians.

ICE Glasses are as useful as they are problematic. On one hand, it’s good to have intelligent resources that expedite the identification and deportation of illegal aliens and criminals. So far, the Trump administration has fallen behind past administrations on deportation totals, and these glasses could help.

On the other hand, you can see how this same technology could be used and abused to surveil the American public at large. While it’s true ICE Glasses will empower agents to arrest more domestic threats, they do so at the expense of American citizens’ privacy.

Is it worth it?