General Intelligence

The U.S. May Soon Scan New Immigrants’ Faces, Irises, Voices, and DNA

If enacted, the personal information of more than 70% of those applying for immigration will be entered into a DHS database.

Dave Gershgorn
OneZero
Published in
3 min readSep 11, 2020

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Photo: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

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The Department of Homeland Security is looking to scan the faces, irises, voices, and DNA of millions more people per year, according to new rules proposed by the agency.

The rules mean that DHS will collect sensitive data like iris scans, palm prints, and voice recordings from a projected 6 million people seeking to immigrate to the U.S. per year, including children under 14. If the rules go into effect as written, the personal information of more than 70% of those applying for immigration will be entered into a DHS database, depending on what kind of immigration status they’re applying for. Many will also have to pay an additional $85 biometrics processing fee.

DHS claims that the collection of data from children, especially their DNA, is meant to help fight human trafficking at the border by verifying that children are related to the adults transporting…

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Dave Gershgorn
OneZero

Senior Writer at OneZero covering surveillance, facial recognition, DIY tech, and artificial intelligence. Previously: Qz, PopSci, and NYTimes.