Emily Froude is a research analyst at Democracy Forward. The views expressed in this piece are the personal perspectives of the author.The setting sun reflects off an Anduril Sentry tower in Luna County, New Mexico. EFF/Wikimedia Commons October 2022The stories trickle out in sputters and gasps. United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents using Flock automated license plate readers that can track cars across the entire nation. An app that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents use to map “potential deportation targets” in a particular area. Agents taking photos of protestors and observers without their permission, using an app the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) says can “determine or verify” their identity. Drip, drip, drip.Government agencies are deploying more artificial intelligence applications than ever before. AI used by DHS deserves particular scrutiny, given the agency’s expressed objective to uproot immigrants from their communities, tear them away from their families, and deport them to countries where they could face persecution or even death. The administration’s own AI policy calls for strong disclosure standards for AI systems that drive decisions about people’s rights and safety. But DHS has declined to classify its AI-driven immigration enforcement tools as high impact, and so it avoids these requirements altogether. Its justification is that a human always reviews the AI’s output before acting. But this defense rests on a…

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