Andrew Sage

So I've seen a piece in 404 Media.

404 Media is the most annoying outlet to read pieces in because they will send you 17 emails a day.

404 Media suggests that ICE is claiming a facial recognition match in its app Mobile Fortify is a definitive determination of somebody's status.

They're quoting here the ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, Benny G. Thompson, as saying, quote, mobile fortify is a dangerous tool in the hands of ICE, and it puts American citizens at risk of detention and even deportation.

He also said that, quote, ICE officials have told us that an apparent biometric match by mobile fortify is a definitive determination of a person's status and that an ICE officer may ignore evidence of American citizenship, including a birth certificate, if the app says the person is an alien.

ICE using a mobile biometrics app in ways its developers at CBP never intended or tested is a frightening, repugnant and unconstitutional attack on Americans' rights and freedoms.

Thompson is misguided if he thinks that, like, this is new.

It is new in that it has impacted U.S.

citizens.

Yes.

This article, for reasons I cannot explain, does not mention CBP1.

Right.

And this is often the case in immigration reporting that we see now.

It's completely lacking in context.

The context here is that CBP1 is an app developed in the first Trump administration.

It's often referred to as a Biden app because the definitive political question of our time is who was president in 2020.

There's just no way to know.

It's impossible to say.

There's no data on anything happening that far back.

Unfortunately, I have a new one, which is more recent, which we're going to talk about next.