ICE Is Using Facial Recognition to Identify, Pursue, and Punish Civilian Observers

TL;DR:

ICE agents are scanning observers' faces with the Mobile Fortify app to identify U.S. citizens watching enforcement operations
One Minnesota woman had her Global Entry and TSA PreCheck revoked three days after a CBP agent called her by name during a legal observation
Agents have pursued observers in vehicles, dragged a U.S. citizen from her car at gunpoint, and driven to observers' homes
A federal judge ordered ICE to stop retaliating against peaceful observers, but the surveillance continues
The surveillance toolkit includes Clearview AI, Mobile Fortify, license plate readers, social media monitoring, and Palantir's ImmigrationOS

"Hi Nicole."

On January 10, 2026, Nicole Cleland pulled her car over behind other observers watching ICE operations in her Richfield, Minnesota neighborhood. A CBP agent walked up to her window. He was wearing full battle fatigues, combat boots, and a gun.

"Hi Nicole," he said.

She'd never met him. She'd never given her name. He knew it anyway.

The agent told Cleland he believed she was following his truck. He said she'd get one warning. The next time CBP or ICE caught her "impeding" their activities, she'd be arrested [1].

Three days later, on January 13, Cleland received a notice from CBP: her Global Entry and TSA PreCheck privileges were revoked. The reason cited was "possible violation of customs/immigration laws": no specifics given [2].

Cleland is a U.S. citizen. She was standing on a public street. She broke no laws. But she watched ICE work, and ICE made her pay for it.

The Surveillance Arsenal Aimed at Observers

How did that agent know Nicole Cleland's name? Court filings in her lawsuit against DHS point to Mobile Fortify, a smartphone app built by NEC that lets ICE agents scan faces and capture contactless fingerprints in the field, instantly matching them against government databases [3].

Mobile Fortify pulls from a staggering 1.2 billion face images. It's been used more than 100,000 times since its June 2025 launch. The databases it taps include IDENT (270 million biometric records), CBP traveler photos, State Department passport and visa images, and FBI records [4].

But Mobile Fortify is just one tool. Here's what ICE is deploying against people who dare to observe its operations in Minneapolis and the Twin Cities:

Clearview AI: Scrapes billions of publicly posted photos from social media to match faces. ICE has an active contract [5].
Mobile Fortify: NEC-built app for field face scans against 1.2 billion government images. Agents have been photographed using it on protesters [4].
Automatic license plate readers: Agents record observers' plates, run them, and show up at their homes. Multiple observers report this happening [6].
Social media monitoring: AI-powered tools analyze protesters' online activity and associations [5].
ImmigrationOS (Palantir): A nearly $30 million platform that combines immigration files, travel records, license plate data, and commercial data into a single interface [5].
Commercial phone location data: Purchased from data brokers, no warrant required [5].

This isn't border enforcement technology. This is a domestic surveillance operation targeting U.S. citizens for exercising their First Amendment rights.

Pursued, Detained, and Dragged from Cars

Cleland's case isn't isolated. Across the Twin Cities, observers report an escalating pattern of retaliation.

In early January, a St. Paul couple tried to follow a caravan of ICE vehicles to see where they were going. ICE agents quickly surrounded their car. One agent greeted the woman by name, again, someone they'd never met. When the couple continued observing, the ICE caravan drove directly to their home address [7].

On January 20, journalist Brandon Sigüenza was detained for eight hours after legally observing ICE operations in Minnesota [8].

In St. Peter, a U.S. citizen woman was recording ICE enforcement from her car when three vehicles boxed her in. Agents drew their guns, dragged her from the vehicle, and forced her to the ground, leaving her with cuts, scrapes, and bruises. They put her in an ICE vehicle and started driving toward the Whipple Federal Building near MSP Airport. About 20 minutes into the drive, an agent received a phone call (apparently from a supervisor) and they turned around. ICE eventually handed her over to the St. Peter police chief, who drove her home [9].

The Punishment Playbook

What makes this different from typical police overreach is the surveillance infrastructure behind it. ICE isn't just reacting to observers in the moment: the agency is building dossiers, cross-referencing databases, and using that intelligence to punish people after the fact.

The retaliation toolkit includes:

Face scanning observers on the street to identify them instantly
Running license plates and showing up at observers' homes
Revoking trusted traveler status (Global Entry, TSA PreCheck) based on "investigation" status
Threatening arrest for "impeding" operations, even when observers are on public property
Vehicle pursuits and physical force against unarmed civilians recording from cars
Eight-hour detentions of journalists legally observing enforcement actions

DHS administers Global Entry and can revoke it at its "sole discretion" if someone is under investigation by any law enforcement agency. Being investigated is enough: no charges, no conviction needed. Roughly 39% of people who appeal revocations win their cases, which tells you how many are unjustified in the first place [3].

A Federal Judge Said Stop. They Haven't.

The ACLU of Minnesota sued. A U.S. District Court judge issued an order telling federal agents to stop arresting, retaliating against, pepper-spraying, and detaining people "engaging in peaceful and unobstructive protest activity." The order specifically prohibited drawing and pointing weapons at observers, using pepper spray and non-lethal munitions, and threatening arrest and detainment of protesters [10].

The surveillance, though? The face scanning, the license plate tracking, the social media monitoring, the database cross-referencing: none of that stopped. The judge's order addresses physical force and arrests. The digital infrastructure of retaliation keeps running.

How to Protect Yourself While Observing

If you're going to watch ICE operations (and you have every legal right to do so), take precautions:

Cover your face. Wear a mask, sunglasses, and a hat. Mobile Fortify needs a clear facial image to match.
Don't bring your phone. Or bring a burner. ICE can access commercial location data without a warrant.
Know that your plates will be recorded. If possible, don't drive your personal vehicle. Or accept the risk and document any retaliation.
Record everything. Filming police and federal agents in public is protected by the First Amendment. Keep recordings backed up to the cloud in real time.
Go with a group. Organizations like the ACLU of Minnesota and Northern Lights Indivisible run legal observer trainings [10].
Know your rights. You don't have to identify yourself to federal agents absent reasonable suspicion of a crime. You can refuse consent to searches.
Document retaliation. If your travel privileges are revoked, if agents show up at your home, or if you're threatened, document it and contact the ACLU or a civil rights attorney immediately.

The Bigger Pattern

Minneapolis is a testing ground. The combination of tools deployed against observers there (facial recognition, social media AI, license plate readers, Palantir analytics, commercial location data) represents the full surveillance stack that DHS has assembled over two decades of "border security" and "counterterrorism" spending.

Now that stack is pointed at Americans who stand on public sidewalks and watch.

The message from ICE is clear: We know who you are. We know where you live. We control your ability to fly without hassle. And we will use all of it if you make our job harder.

The question for everyone else is whether that's the country you want to live in.

Sources

Published: February 5, 2026