Trump border plans spur hopes and fears for biometrics spending bonanza

Speculation over how incoming U.S. President Donald Trump plans to harden the country’s borders and carry out mass deportations, the place of biometrics in border control programs and the budgets those programs will have has reached a fever pitch.

The Trump campaign was heavily focused on increasing border control and promises to deport illegal immigrants, both of which would entail identifying people who are crossing or have crossed the border. Civil society groups and media outlets warn that these efforts have warned that “techno-solutionism” applied to immigration could easily be turned against Americans.

President-elect Trump told NBC News in the wake of the election that his deportation plan would have “no price tag.” And Thomson Reuters notes that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued an RFI for GPS tracking and biometric monitoring devices the day after the election.

An opinion piece published by The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists points out that shares in GEO Group, a prison company whose subsidiary BI Inc. manages the SmartLINK facial recognition app through which ICE monitors migrants, jumped by 73 percent following the election.

But as many observers have noted, biometrics contracts with ICE have also expanded under the outgoing Democratic Party Administration.

Changes and more restrictive border policies are being planned, however.

Republican lawmakers including House Speaker Mike Johnson have said that the preferred approach to the legislative changes needed to enact the President’s desired policies at the border and elsewhere is the passage of a single, comprehensive bill. The bill would be voted on through a “reconciliation” process, allowing a simple Senate majority of 50 votes for approval instead of the 60 normally required under a filibuster rule, The Guardian reports.

President Trump is even taking credit for Canadian investments in drones and helicopters for border security.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  border security  |  Mexico  |  U.S. Government  |  United States