ICE's facial recognition app, Mobile Fortify, misidentified a detained woman on two separate occasions, raising serious questions about the tool's reliability. ## Incident Details During an attempt to identify and verify the immigration status of a woman arrested in Oregon, the app returned two different and incorrect names. The incident calls into question the accuracy of Mobile Fortify, an application that, according to statements made by ICE to lawmakers, provides a "definitive" determination of a person's immigration status, to be considered more reliable than a birth certificate. ## Concerns about the technology Cooper Quintin, a security researcher at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, expressed concern about the use of this flawed technology to determine an individual's status and potentially deport them. The incident involved a 45-year-old woman, identified as MJMA in court documents, arrested during a raid. The woman's lawyer argues that the app is unreliable and should not be used in the field. ## Implications and reactions Representative Bennie G. Thompson stated that the app's results demonstrate that it is neither reliable nor accurate and should not be used in the field. Previously, 404 Media had revealed the existence of Mobile Fortify and had discovered that both ICE and CBP use the app throughout the country. A version of the app was also launched for local law enforcement, which was later removed from the Google Play Store. ## General context Facial recognition systems have long been a concern due to their inaccuracy, which has led to the arrest or indictment of innocent people. Errors are more frequent towards people of color. Some researchers argue that the use of such a fallible technology suggests that the appearance of a process is more important than accuracy or fairness.