Key Takeaways
• CBP will photograph every person leaving the U.S. by car for real-time facial recognition at border crossings.
• Privacy groups raise concerns about photo quality, technical errors, and wrongful detentions from unreliable facial recognition.
• Legal settlements protect the right to record at borders, while debate grows over balancing security and privacy rights.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is moving forward with a broad new plan to photograph every person leaving the United States 🇺🇸 by car. The goal is to use this data for real-time facial recognition at border crossings, marking a major shift in how travelers are tracked at the edge of the country.
This development affects millions of people and raises big questions about how technology, privacy, and border security will work together in the future. If you’re planning a road trip out of the United States 🇺🇸, or you live near the border, it’s important to know what’s changing and what it could mean for you.
A New Era of Border Surveillance
CBP’s plan, confirmed to Wired by an agency spokesperson, is part of a larger effort to use technology for border security. The agency wants to photograph every single person who leaves the country by car. This new step is added to CBP’s ongoing work to use facial recognition at ports of entry and exit.
CBP isn’t only focusing on people leaving. The agency is also reaching out to technology companies to help build a real-time facial recognition system for people arriving in cars. The idea is that, as each car goes through the checkpoint, a camera captures a photo of each passenger. The system then matches the photograph with travel ID documents and checks government databases.
This kind of technology is already being used at airports and some land border crossings. But the plan to photograph everyone leaving the country by car takes things to a much bigger scale.
How Real-Time Facial Recognition at the Border Works
Facial recognition is a type of computer technology that scans a person’s face in a photograph or video, then tries to match it against photos stored in a database. When used at the border, this tool checks if the person in the car matches the photo on their travel documents, such as a passport.
Here’s how CBP envisions the process:
- As a car approaches a border exit point, cameras automatically take a picture of each person inside.
- The system uses facial recognition to scan and compare the photo with ID documents or government databases.
- If the face matches what’s on record, the system logs the entry or exit.
CBP hopes this will help spot people who are not allowed to enter or leave, or who might have committed crimes. But as VisaVerge.com points out, the new plan could also create issues by putting heavy technology at the core of border crossings.
Problems With Photographs Through Car Windows
Privacy and civil rights groups have serious concerns about CBP’s plan. The Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.), a group that fights for privacy rights, has spoken out strongly against this move.
Much of the worry centers on the performance of facial recognition technology in real-world settings. There are several key problems:
- Photograph quality: When cameras take pictures through car windows, reflections and glare from the glass can distort faces.
- Technical errors: These image problems can cause the system to make mistakes, such as not matching a person to their ID, or worse, mismatching someone to another person’s identity.
- False positives: According to S.T.O.P.’s Executive Director, Albert Fox Cahn, these errors can be serious: “A lot of people are going to get wrongly arrested if this happens,” he warned. False positives mean the system says someone is a match when they are not, which can lead to unnecessary detentions or legal trouble.
There is already a clear example of this problem. In New York 🇺🇸 in 2019, a similar system was tested. It cost millions of dollars but failed to capture even one good face image because windshield reflections ruined the photos. This shows that even expensive technology can struggle with basic conditions like sunlight and reflections.
CBP’s plan to photograph every traveler in a car may run into the same issues, which raises concerns about both its effectiveness and fairness.
Privacy and Civil Rights Groups Push Back
Groups like S.T.O.P. are not just worried about technical flaws. They have bigger concerns about privacy, civil rights, and what kind of country the United States 🇺🇸 wants to be.
When the government collects and stores photographs of every person crossing the border, it raises several questions:
- How long will these photos be stored?
- Who can access them?
- What protections are there against misuse or hacking?
- Will people be able to challenge or correct mistakes?
One of the biggest fears is a “dragnet” style system, where everyone is treated as a potential suspect. Some civil rights supporters argue that photographing all car passengers, not just those under suspicion, is too much governmental power and could lead to abuse.
Legal Rights Around Photography at Borders
This new initiative is not happening in a vacuum. In 2020, there was a notable legal settlement about the right to photograph and record at border crossings. The case involved the Department of Homeland Security and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
The agreement made it clear: individuals have the right to photograph and record at land border crossings, especially from public places where anyone can access, not just those crossing the border. This rule came after activists near the border were detained and had their digital photos taken and deleted by CBP officers.
Thanks to the settlement, everyone—including journalists, travelers, and witnesses—has the right to take photos at official border points along both the US-Mexico 🇲🇽 and US-Canada 🇨🇦 borders.
This background could play a role if CBP’s new photography plan faces legal challenges. People may argue that mass collection of their photos goes too far and violates established rights.
For more details about these legal rights, you can read the official settlement and guidelines on the Papers Please website, which lays out what people can and cannot do when taking pictures at the border.
Balancing Security and Privacy
CBP officials believe that using facial recognition and photograph systems will help keep the country safe. They argue that these methods can find people traveling under fake identities, catch criminals, and make border checks move faster.
But critics, like S.T.O.P., warn that the push for security can go too far. They argue that technology should not be placed above the rights of regular people. Mistakes in the system can have very real impacts, from delays to wrongful arrests and even damaging records.
People on both sides agree that there is a need for clear rules about how technology is used at borders. With the new plan, the United States 🇺🇸 is joining other countries that are putting more technology into border checks, but there is no clear answer yet on how well these methods will work.
What Travelers Should Know
If you’re planning to leave the United States 🇺🇸 by car, here are a few things to keep in mind:
- Your photograph will likely be taken as part of the crossing process.
- The photo may be checked by facial recognition software against your ID and government databases.
- If there is a match problem, it could cause a delay or trigger questions from border agents.
- You still have rights at the border, including the right to photograph or film from public spaces at or near entry points.
Travelers should stay alert to any changes in border crossing rules and be ready to cooperate with agents. But it is also wise to know your rights and keep up with news about how these new systems are being used.
Looking Back: History Repeats Itself?
The history of border surveillance is filled with new tools and systems—some successful, others less so. In the past, new technology has often faced both technical problems and legal battles.
For example, the failed New York 🇺🇸 windshield system is a warning sign that even expensive and well-planned projects can stumble. Glare, window tint, and movement all make it tricky to get clear photographs, which is essential for facial recognition to work well.
The legal settlement with the ACLU shows that when technology runs ahead of clear rules, people will often turn to courts for answers. This may happen again as CBP builds out these new systems.
Ongoing Questions and the Road Ahead
There are lots of open questions as CBP starts taking photographs of everyone leaving by car:
- Accuracy: Can facial recognition ever be reliable enough in a moving car, through glass?
- Privacy: How much tracking is too much?
- Oversight: Who will check if the photos are used correctly and stored safely?
- Redress: How can someone fix an error or challenge a false match?
These questions matter to a wide group—travelers, border communities, civil rights groups, and even technology companies asked to build the new systems.
CBP has not yet said how it will address most of these problems. The public will be watching closely as the pilot phases begin.
For Employers and Families
It’s not just travelers who should pay attention. Employers with workers who travel for business, people living in border towns, and families who cross the border for school, shopping, or medical care all need to stay aware.
If problems with the technology cause delays or wrongful detentions, it could impact businesses, education, and even basic family routines.
International Impact
Other countries are watching what happens in the United States 🇺🇸, as they consider how to handle border security. If CBP’s system works, it could be copied elsewhere. But if it fails or faces big legal problems, it might push other countries to slow down similar plans.
Global travelers could one day see these systems at borders in Canada 🇨🇦, Mexico 🇲🇽, or around the world.
The Bottom Line
The United States 🇺🇸 is about to start photographing every person leaving the country by car at border crossings. This plan is part of a larger move to use facial recognition and modern technology at the border.
CBP’s plan has sparked a strong debate. Supporters believe it can help keep the country safer and make borders work better. Critics worry about privacy, technical failures, and mistakes that could affect innocent people.
This new chapter in border security will likely spark new legal cases and lots of public discussion, especially with the history of legal protections for both travelers and border observers.
Before you drive across the border, it’s smart to know your rights and understand what information border agents will collect. You can read more about official policies on the U.S. Customs and Border Protection website.
As reported by VisaVerge.com, the United States 🇺🇸 move to photograph all border crossers by car is a big step in the use of technology for security. But with new power comes new responsibility—and many people will be watching closely to see if the balance between safety, privacy, and freedom can be kept.
Learn Today
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) → A federal agency that manages and secures U.S. borders, overseeing the flow of people and goods.
Facial recognition → Technology that scans and identifies a person’s face, often by comparing it to stored images in a database.
Biometric data → Unique physical characteristics, such as facial features or fingerprints, used to verify someone’s identity.
False positive → An error in facial recognition when the system incorrectly matches an individual to someone else’s identity.
Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.) → A civil rights group focused on monitoring and challenging government surveillance technologies.
This Article in a Nutshell
U.S. Customs and Border Protection plans to photograph every person leaving the U.S. by car, expanding facial recognition at borders. While officials claim this boosts security, critics warn of privacy risks, technical errors, and legal concerns. Travelers must know their rights as this ambitious technology rolls out at land borders.
— By VisaVerge.com
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