October 29, 2025
Smile for the state
ICE and CBP Agents Are Scanning Faces on the Street to Verify Citizenship
Agents point phones at kids’ faces — internet screams Big Brother and starts memeing
TLDR: Agents allegedly used phone-based face scans on kids in Chicago to check citizenship, sparking fears of a “face ID checkpoint” future. Commenters rage about data hoarding (Palantir rumors), warn of surveillance creep to street cameras, and meme the masked agents—all highlighting a bigger fight over privacy and power.
A video of Border Patrol stopping two boys on bikes in Chicago and scanning one kid’s face with a phone has the internet in full meltdown mode. ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and CBP (Customs and Border Protection) are accused of turning sidewalks into checkpoints, and the crowd is not chill about it. The loudest chorus? Who’s hoarding the faces. One commenter bets it’s Palantir or Oracle, fueling fears of a shadowy mega-database quietly bulking up. Others say this is just the beginning — next up, those license plate cameras will start recognizing your face too, turning every intersection into a gatekeeper.
The vibe ricochets between outrage and pitch-black humor. People can’t get over the optics: agents in sunglasses and gaiters doing facial recognition while hiding their own faces. Cue the Half-Life meme: “Pick up that can.” The thread also hints at a mystery tool — “Mobile Fortify” — with sleuths swapping receipts and one user dropping an archive link to fan the flames.
Bottom line, the community sees a creeping “papers, please” era, only now it’s “faces, please.” Privacy hawks call it unconstitutional mission creep; tech realists say the genie’s out of the bottle. Everyone agrees on one thing: this feels less like a safety check and more like a dystopian dress rehearsal.
Key Points
- •A video cited in the article shows Border Patrol officers stopping two youths in Chicago during the day.
- •After one youth says he has no ID and states he was born in the U.S., an officer asks a colleague to “do facial.”
- •An officer uses a phone to scan the youth’s face, after positioning him to face the sun, and then asks him to verify his name.
- •The article highlights that ICE/CBP agents are using facial recognition on the street to verify identity and citizenship when ID is unavailable.
- •The reporter requests additional videos and information, specifically about a tool called “Mobile Fortify,” and provides Signal and email for tips.