Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recently spent nearly four million dollars on facial recognition technology in part to investigate people it believes have assaulted law enforcement officers, according to procurement records reviewed by 404 Media.The records are unusual in that they indicate ICE is buying the technology to identify people who might clash with the agencys officers as they continue the Trump administrations mass deportation efforts. Authorities have repeatedly claimed members of the public have assaulted or otherwise attacked ICE or other immigration enforcement officers, only later for charges to be dropped or lowered when it emerged authorities misrepresented what happened or brutally assaulted protesters themselves. In other cases, prosecutions are ongoing.Do you know anything else about how ICE is using facial recognition tech or other tools? I would love to hear from you. Using a non-work device, you can message me securely on Signal at joseph.404 or send me an email at joseph@404media.co.This award procures facial recognition software, which supports Homeland Security Investigations with capabilities of identifying victims and offenders in child sexual exploitation cases and assaults against law enforcement officers, the procurement records reads. The September 5 purchase awards $3,750,000 to well-known and controversial facial recognition firm Clearview AI. The record indicates the total value of the contract is $9,225,000.Clearview became infamous as the first tech company to cross the rubicon with regards to facial recognition technology: Clearview built a massive database of billions of images scraped from social media and the public web, letting a law enforcement upload a photo or snap someones face with their phone, and be given a gallery of potential matching images and the persons identity. Since being first revealed in the New York Times in 2020, Clearview has established itself as a government contractor, working with the FBI, U.S. Marshals, the Army, and even NASA.Clearview has also repeatedly contracted with ICE, according to procurement records. But those purchases did not explicitly say the technology would be used to identify people the agency believed were assaulting officers.A screenshot of the procurement record.ICE officers commonly wear masks to hide their identity, and masked men seen in social media videos often refuse to state what agency they are with. ICE has claimed that assaults against its officers have increased and used this as a justification for the masks. It is unclear how ICE has come to its figures saying assaults have jumped hundreds of percent.The FBI has already used facial recognition technology to identify people suspected of assaulting ICE officers. Robert Jacob Hoopes was arrested in July and is accused of striking an ICE officer in the head with a rock and damaging the ICE building in South Portland, The Oregonian reported. The complaint said an FBI Special Agent uploaded a photo into commercially available facial recognition software. Hoopes entered a not guilty plea in mid-August, according to court records.Los Angeles protester Jose Manuel Mojica was initially charged with assaulting border patrol agents before authorities dropped those charges. Instead, he was the one who was attacked, according to his account and cellphone footage shared with The Guardian. He told the outlet We are not the violent ones. They escalated it. They are chasing down innocent people, and There was a different way to handle the situation than to beat me.Authorities arrested Adrian Martinez in June after he protested the arrest of a worker in a shopping center parking lot. After agents violently detained him, Martinez says the agents told him he was arrested for assaulting a federal officer, and later was accused of punching an agent in the face. As the Los Angeles Times reported, the agents pointed to the colleague Martinez was accused of assaulting. I dont even remember you, Martinez told the outlet. It just seemed like they were trying to get me to say like, Yes, you assaulted him, but I knew I didnt. Martinez was later charged with conspiracy to impede a federal officer, and the complaint makes no mention of a punch, the Los Angeles Times added.ICEs use of Clearview is in addition to its new facial recognition app Mobile Fortify, which 404 Media previously revealed. Rather than public images like Clearview, Mobile Fortify taps into a wide array of government databases and uses a system ordinarily reserved for when people enter or exit the U.S. According to a user guide 404 Media has seen, the facial recognition app brings up in its results whether a subject has been marked for deportation. Congress demanded more information from DHS about the tool last week following 404 Medias reporting.Neither ICE or Clearview responded to a request for comment.