The Department of Homeland Security is carving out $7.5 million for the 2027 Trump budget to use biometric technology to develop “smart glasses” to identify undocumented immigrants in real time.
The White House is intent on developing technology, tools, and data that enable ICE and Border Patrol to “encounter, transport, detain and remove migrants who are in the United States illegally.”
The Research, Development and Innovation portion of the budget calls for operational prototypes of smart glasses for agent use in the first quarter of 2027. At this time, no funds have been committed for the technology.
It is unknown which technology manufacturer DHS could contract with to create the smart glasses prototype.
Meta partnered with Ray-Ban and Oakley to release its first smart glasses offering in 2025. It was reported earlier this year that Meta plans to add a facial recognition to the system, even while five years earlier Meta scrapped the idea over concerns of violating the privacy and legal rights of others.
Cody Venzke, an ACLU attorney, says the use of facial recognition could be just the first step of people’s rights being violated with government overreach.
Facial recognition is used in airports for TSA security checkpoints, but the idea of identifying people without their knowledge is troublesome.
Critics warn the technology could also be used against those who protest government policies.
“This technology, once it’s built, can be weaponized by whoever happened to win the last election,” Venzke told NewsNation. “And it raises this prospect that if you are out exercising your First Amendment right to challenge the government’s policies, then you might find yourself in a database and have a dossier built against you so that the government can track what you’re up to.”