Why ICE Agents Wear Masks: Inside the Billion-Dollar Surveillance System Targeting Us All

Ever wonder why ICE agents cover their faces during raids? They know exactly what surveillance technology can do when your face is captured in public. And that’s because they’re operating the most sophisticated surveillance apparatus ever deployed on American soil.

With a $75 billion budget from last year’s reconciliation process, ICE has gone on a shopping spree that rivals China’s “Safe Cities” program. Iris scanners from BI2 Technologies. Facial recognition from Clearview AI. License-plate tracking systems from Thomson Reuters that can establish your daily travel patterns. Cell phone location tracking purchased from commercial data brokers. A $30 million enforcement platform from Palantir that draws on everything from Medicaid records to IRS data.

The technology doesn’t stop at identifying immigrants. Body cam footage shows agents using ChatGPT to write reports. “Stingray” devices impersonate cell towers to grab a protester’s unique phone identifier—often without warrants. And ICE, like other agencies, sidesteps the Supreme Court’s Carpenter decision by simply buying from commercial data brokers what they can’t legally obtain with a warrant.

And here’s the kicker: DHS is now using at least 200 AI systems—a 37% increase since July 2025—with virtually no oversight because agencies self-report whether AI is their “primary” decision-making tool.

Watch the full breakdown to understand what this means for everyone’s civil liberties, both Americans and those hoping to be.