Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reportedly intends on acquiring AI technology capable of scanning people’s eyes from several feet away. According to 9NEWS, the agency issued a notice to purchase licenses for the iris recognition technology to aid in deportations and removals. “The mobile software from BI2 Technologies can identify individuals from 10 to 15 feet away using a smartphone app, according to the the Massachusetts-based company. It then connects with a second product that includes a database,” 9NEWS wrote. ICE plans to acquire AI technology that can scan and identify people’s irises from 10-15 feet away using a mobile app, comparing the images to databases and social media photos for deportation purposes. Follow: @AFpost pic.twitter.com/wWfD8cPf5o — AF Post (@AFpost) August 12, 2025 More from 9NEWS: ICE posted a Wednesday announcement for a sole source purchase order to BI2 Technologies for licenses to both BI2’s Inmate Recognition & Identification System and the Mobile Offender Recognition & Identification System for “enforcement and removal operations.” Steve Beaty, a computer science professor at Metropolitan State University of Denver, explained iris biometric capabilities. “In general, it’s quite accurate,” Beaty said. “The iris is the part of your eye that everybody sees — the color has stripes in it and they are unique to an individual.” Beaty said recent technological advances have made iris scanning more accessible and affordable. “The innovation is now that it’s much less expensive that it can be done on less expensive devices such as phones,” Beaty said. “In the past it was kind of a big standalone machine that these sorts of things could be used on.” The system compares iris scans to existing databases of photos. Beaty says that can come from a criminal database or even from photos scraped from social media profiles. “Facial recognition companies have scraped the internet for photos,” Beaty said. Andrew Maynard, a professor of advanced technology transitions at Arizona State University, expressed concerns about the tool’s accuracy. “This idea of scanning the iris and using it as biometrics for identifying someone we know, we can do that. The question is, can you do it with an iPhone from a few meters distance? And all the evidence is no, you can’t. The phones are simply not that good,” he told AZFamily. ICE to obtain AI technology capable of scanning people’s eyes from several feet away.https://t.co/639Uu7PGgh pic.twitter.com/mSxGBynGj8 — End Time Headlines (@EndTimeHeadline) August 12, 2025 AZFamily noted: Because he doubts the accuracy of the tech, he says ethics come into question. “To get a really good picture of somebody’s iris, you’ve gotta have good lighting. They gotta have their eyes open. You’ve gotta have a high-resolution camera,” Maynard said. If it is used, he believes oversight and updated protocols should be required. “It’s critical to know how accurate this is and what the provisions are that are in place if you get things wrong,” Maynard said. “They’re kind of getting ahead of their skis,” said a former ICE agent, who asked not to share his name. He said that while the app could help ICE agents detect people who are here illegally, especially those who have already been encountered by ICE, it also introduces privacy concerns for citizens, especially if photos are being compared to ones found on social media. “AI is evolving so rapidly and the laws are not keeping up with the evolution,” he said. ICE has not confirmed any plans to use this technology in the field. A spokesperson for ICE said the agency uses multiple forms of tech while respecting civil liberties.