ICE Is Buying Mobile Iris Scanning Tech for Its Deportation Arm

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is looking to buy iris scanning technology that its manufacturer says can identify known persons “in seconds from virtually anywhere,” according to newly published procurement documents.

Originally designed to be used by sheriff departments to identify inmates or other known persons, ICE is now likely buying the technology specifically for its Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) section, which focuses on deportations.

“This one-of-a-kind system allows sheriffs and other law enforcement agencies to quickly authenticate the identity of the person in their custody and provides record information from other jurisdictions across the country once the offender is registered in the system,” a brochure for one of the technology products, called the Mobile Offender Recognition & Identification System, or MORIS, reads. The procurement documents say ICE is also seeking to buy access to the Inmate Recognition & Identification System, or I.R.I.S., and marketing material available online says the two work in tandem with one another. I.R.I.S. claims to be the “only national, web-based iris biometric network” in that material.

Both products are made by BI2 Technologies, a company based in Massachusetts. Neither BI2 or DHS responded to a request for comment.

On Wednesday ICE posted an announcement saying it intended to award a sole source purchase order to BI2 for licenses to both I.R.I.S and MORIS. According to BI2 marketing material, MORIS is available on Apple and Android devices. That material says it can identify an offender already enrolled in a national database.

“The Inmate Identification and Recognition System (I.R.I.S.™) positively identifies offenders using the most anatomically unique biometric—the iris,” a page on BI2’s website reads. It says that Sheriff’s Offices have been using I.R.I.S for making arrests, inmate intaking and booking, releasing inmates, and authenticating an individual. “At the root of iris recognition’s accuracy is the data-richness of the iris itself. The I.R.I.S.™ system captures over 265 points of unique characteristics in formulating its algorithmic template,” the website adds.

BI2’s system connects to multiple databases according to previous media reports, including the Sex Offender Registry and Identification System, Child Project, Senior Safety Net (a registry used to identify enrolled seniors who may be lost due to dementia) and I.R.I.S. itself. 

In a 2017 press release, Sean G. Mullin, president of BI2 Technologies, said the company’s technology “will provide each Sheriff with immediate access to national, state and local criminal justice and law enforcement databases. This will enable Sheriff’s staff to positively identify previously enrolled individuals in seconds, regardless of the often fraudulent identity presented.”

This appears to be BI2’s first contract with ICE, according to federal procurement databases. An ICE source also said they had never heard of ICE working with BI2. 404 Media granted the source anonymity because they weren’t permitted to speak to the press.

404 Media previously reported on Mobile Fortify, a new ICE facial recognition app that officials can install on their work issued phones which queries a wealth of state and federal databases at once to reveal someone’s identity and whether they had been marked for deportation. That included images collected by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) when people enter or exit the United States.