A Minnesota protestor says her TSA PreCheck was revoked after an ICE Mobile app scanned her face.
Ars Technica first reported the news of the Minneapolis resident and ICE observer getting her air travel status revoked. The woman, identified as Nicole Cleland, says she had her Global Entry and TSA PreCheck privileges stripped from her after she observed the actions of ICE agents in the city.
Cleland lives in the Richfield, a northern suburb city of Minneapolis. Since the ICE raids began, she has volunteered with an organization dedicated to observing immigration agent activity in her neighborhood.
While performing these volunteered duties to protect her community, Cleland began following a white Dodge Ram she believed ICE agents were driving in.
Cleland and a fellow volunteer began driving separate vehicles to follow the ICE agents from a safe distance. But other ICE agent-driven vehicles came along, blocking Cleland and the other volunteer from driving forward.
Cleland filed a formal declaration about the incident with the U.S. District Court in Minnesota on Jan. 21. In it, the 56-year-old recalled how the facial recognition occurred.
“An [ICE] agent exited the vehicle and approached my vehicle. I remained in my vehicle. The agent addressed me by my name and informed me that they had ‘facial recognition’ and that his body cam was recording. The agent stated that he worked for border patrol. He wore full camouflage fatigues. The agent stated that I was impeding their work. He indicated he was giving me a verbal warning and if I was found to be impeding again, I would be arrested,” Cleland wrote.
Here filing was part of a greater lawsuit by Minneapolis residents against the ICE raids and Department of Homeland Security officials.
She asserted that days later she received an email regarding her cancelled Global Entry and TSA PreCheck. However, she says the notification did not list a reason for the revoked status.
“…The only one that makes sense was ‘The applicant has been found in violation of any customs, immigration, or agriculture regulations, procedures, or laws in any country.’ I was not detained, I was not arrested so [it is] difficult to understand how I was ‘found in violation.’”
Cleland aid she believes the revocation directly stemmed from her encounter with the ICE agent. She referred to the matter as an act of “intimidation and retaliation,” despite behaving in accordance with Legal Observer laws.
“I am concerned that border patrol and other federal enforcement agencies now have my license plate and personal information, and that I may be detained or arrested again in the future,” she wrote. “I am concerned about further actions that could be taken against me or my family…I have instructed my family to be cautious and return inside if they see unfamiliar vehicles outside of our home.”
According to the New York Times, Cleland is one of several other U.S. citizens whose faces underwent facial recognition, all without their consent. The app completes this facial recognition through the help of Clearview AI. The tech company also told Ars Technica that it initially helped the DHS’ “child exploitation and cyber crimes investigations.”
But a contract renewal reveals that ICE also uses the tech to investigate “assaults against law enforcement officers.”
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