Tech tools may drive record deportations under Trump's crackdown

Apps and ankle monitors that track asylum seekers in real time wherever they go. Databases packed with personal information like fingerprints and faces.  Investig­ative tools that can break into locked phones and search through gigabytes of emails, text and other files. 

These are pieces of a technology arsenal available to President Trump as he aims to crack down on illegal immigration and carry out the largest deportation operation in American history. To do so, his administration can tap a stockpile of tools built up by Democrats and Republicans that is nearly unma­tched in the Western world, according toThe New York Times analysis. 

A review of nearly 15,000 contracts shows that two agencies — Immigration and Customs Enforc­ement, and Citizen and Immigration Services — have spent $7.8 billion on immigration technologies from 263 companies since 2020. 

The contracts, most of which were initiated under the Biden administration, included ones for tools that can rapidly prove family relationships with a DNA test to check whether, say, an adult migrant crossing the border with a minor are related.  Other systems compare biometrics agai­n­st criminal records, alert agents to changes in address, follow cars with license plate readers, and rip and analyse data. 

The contracts, which ranged in size, were for mundane tech like phone services as well as advanced tools from big and small companies. 

The Biden administration used many of these technologies for immigration enforcement, including in investigations of drug trafficking, human smuggling and transnational gang activity. How Trump may apply the tools is unknown, especially as the whereabouts of many immigrants are known and the government faces a shortage of officers and facilities to detain people.