US immigration officers stopped a van carrying farm workers in Oregon, smashed its windows, and used facial recognition software to try to identify one of the detainees. The footage from a 30 October 2025 operation was disclosed in court in a class-action lawsuit challenging ICE arrest tactics and alleged racial profiling. Officers lacked warrants to detain the workers, and a federal judge later said the arrests appeared unlawful and unjustified. The video shows an agent photographing a detainee’s face with a phone, and agents admitted in court that they used a facial recognition app during the operation. ICE also used an app called Elite, built by Palantir, to select locations for surveillance based on data about potential targets, including following a van after license plate checks suggested the owner lacked authorization.
"Newly released body-camera footage shows US immigration officers stopping a van of farm workers in Oregon, smashing their windows and using facial recognition software to try to identify one of them. Videos from a 30 October 2025 operation were disclosed in court as part of an ongoing class-action lawsuit challenging Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) arrest tactics and racial profiling by agents. Lawyers for one of the detained farm workers shared the footage with the Guardian."
"The officers did not have warrants to detain the workers, and a federal judge later said the arrests appeared to be unlawful and unjustified. The footage shows an agent using his phone to capture the face of one of the detained workers, and agents later admitted in court that they used a facial recognition app during the operation. The case provides a window into ICE's expanding use of this surveillance technology across the US, which has raised significant privacy and civil liberties concerns, particularly since the app can yield inaccurate results."
"In the early morning on the day the footage was filmed, a team of ICE agents surveilled an apartment complex in Woodburn, a city south of Portland and home to many agricultural workers. An officer identified in court as JB later testified that the agents had chosen that location in part based on data surfaced from an ICE mobile app called Elite, which was built by the tech firm Palantir. The agent said the app helps officers find areas where they might find targets to potentially detain."
"Agents decided to follow a white van leaving the apartment complex after running license plates and discovering the van's owner was potentially an immigrant in the US without authorization, JB said. The officer said in court they did not confirm whether the driver of the van was, in fact, the vehicle's owner, but that he felt it was suspicious the driver was making multiple stops for passengers: You don't know if it's human trafficking or smuggling. Law"
Read at www.theguardian.com
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