DHS Plans AI “Smart Glasses” That Could Identify People in Real Time

The Department of Homeland Security is set to receive $7.5 million in President Trump's fiscal year 2027 budget to develop AI-powered "smart glasses" capable of identifying migrants in real time using biometric technology,  and critics warn the implications stretch far beyond immigration enforcement.

The glasses, listed under DHS's Research, Development and Innovation budget, would equip federal agents with what the documents describe as "real-time access to information and biometric identification capabilities in the field." Operational prototypes are targeted for the first quarter of 2027. For those already alarmed by the expansion of government surveillance powers, this represents yet another erosion of the boundaries between public life and state monitoring.

The technology wouldn't stop at facial recognition. ACLU attorney Cody Venzke warns that gait recognition,  identifying someone by the way they walk, and long-range fingerprint scanning could follow. "As this technology spreads to be undercover and something that you can't recognize is happening around you," he told NewsNation, "it raises concerns that you're surrendering all semblance of anonymity that you have even in public."

Perhaps more chilling is the technology's potential to outlast any single administration. Venzke cautioned that "this technology, once it's built, can be weaponized by whoever happened to win the last election." The glasses could be turned not just on undocumented migrants, but on American citizens exercising their First Amendment rights, protesters, activists, journalists. "You might find yourself in a database and have a dossier built against you so that the government can track what you're up to," Venzke added.

DHS insists all technology will operate "within the full scope of the law," and former CBP commander Jason Owens argues better identification tools keep both agents and migrants safer.

But the pattern is hard to ignore. Each new tool,  facial recognition at airports, AI surveillance systems at borders, now smart glasses on the street,  arrives with assurances of lawfulness and limited scope. The question troubling civil liberties advocates isn't whether the technology is legal today. It's what happens tomorrow.

Link: The Hill