Federal immigration agents have relied on a nationwide license-plate database to help find and investigate immigrants, according to new documents released by the ACLU.
By Drew Harwell and Drew Harwell National technology reporter covering artificial intelligence Email Bio Follow Tony Romm Tony Romm Staff writer covering technology policy Email Bio Follow March 13 at 11:40 AM Immigration agents have been tapping into a vast, privately maintained database of license plates gleaned from vehicles across the United States to track down people who may be here illegally, according to documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union and released Wednesday.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s use of some of the information in states including California also appears to skirt limitations that “sanctuary cities” have placed on police cooperation with the immigration agency, the ACLU said. Mounted on police squad cars and above major roads, the scanners automatically log the time, location and license plate of all the cars that pass by, filling out a database law-enforcement authorities could use to precisely monitor a person’s travels, according to the ACLU.
That’s become a valuable trove for ICE, which has been able to access driver-location information culled from businesses in America’s 50 biggest metropolitan areas, the ACLU records show. Thousands of ICE employees, including some who work on deportation cases, have access to the database, the watchdog group said.
ICE signed a $6 million contract in 2017 that gave it access to data maintained by Vigilant Solutions, a California-based security-technology company. The agency announced at the time that it would use it to support “criminal and administrative law enforcement missions.” Vigilant says its database has more than 5 billion nationwide license-plate “detections” and adds another 150 million more every month. Officers can search for a license plate to find everywhere that car was seen on camera, or get alerted whenever the license plate is spotted.
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