Earlier this year, federal Border Patrol agents in Texas announced they had arrested more than 12 migrants with criminal convictions or histories caught entering the country illegally. Authorities said the migrants had ties to violent gangs or drug cartels, while some were felony sex offenders, child predators and drug traffickers.
As immigration to the U.S. surges, it highlights a risk to social service groups and other organizations that work with undocumented migrants: How do you know if the people who have come to you for help or basic services have criminal backgrounds or represent a danger to your employees and the public?
While it’s difficult to get a sense of how many undocumented migrants have criminal backgrounds that make them a threat to public safety, the growth in immigration to the United States is significant. Since 1970, the number of immigrants in the U.S. has risen nearly five-fold to nearly 46.2 million in 2022, thanks largely to increased migration from Latin America and Asia.
The nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute in 2015 estimated that 820,000 of the roughly 11 million people then living in the U.S. illegally had criminal convictions and of those, about 300,000 had felony convictions.
The issue took on added poignancy after the killing of a woman in Georgia, allegedly by an undocumented immigrant from Venezuela who was allowed to stay in the U.S.
How the Feds Screen Migrants
U.S. Customs and Border Protections officials may turn away migrants at the border or deport them if they discover they have a felony. Officials also run an inter-agency criminal background and security check of all migrants who are seeking naturalization.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the FBI operate an information-sharing system to help identify migrants in custody. Local law-enforcement agencies also typically have shared fingerprints of migrants who’ve been arrested, taken into custody with the FBI, or both, to verify whether they have a criminal record or any outstanding warrants.
Under its Secure Communities program, the FBI sends the fingerprints to DHS to check against its immigration databases. Those migrants deemed removable are referred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, with priority given to those deemed to present the most significant threat to public safety, based on the severity of their crime, criminal histories and risks to public safety.
ICE also operates the Criminal Apprehension Program, which focuses on identifying, arresting and removing incarcerated noncitizens and at-large criminal noncitizens.
The Challenge for Organizations
But that doesn’t account for undocumented migrants who have evaded detection from federal agents.
We’ve spoken with officials from several social service organizations that help migrants who tell us they’re concerned about two basic profiles:
- Migrants who have entered the U.S. and have criminal records in their home country. They often lack identification, so organizations are interested in using facial identification to identify them.
- Unaccompanied minors who lack identification. Organizations are interested in assigning them an ID number – and assigning that number to a database so they can be identified via facial identification.
Migrants who fit these profiles often travel over state lines to visit multiple aid organizations, these officials tell us, making it all the more important to be able to initially identify them so other organizations can be prepared.
The Solution
SOS Technology’s EagleEye AI solution uses artificial intelligence and facial identification to identify unknown and blacklisted people, in addition to guns and other weapons. Our facial identification technology boasts greater than 99% matching accuracy based on testing by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, with real-time notifications to onsite security personnel and remote monitoring centers.
Through this capability, SOS Technologies can partner with law enforcement organizations. We can also work with organizations that support and help migrants transition, such as religious organizations and charities, to enable identification systems to meet specific use cases. For example, undocumented migrants can be assigned an ID number and accessed via a database, so officials can identify and monitor dangerous individuals with criminal records. This allows organizations to take a proactive approach to addressing migrants perceived as a risk to commit crimes or incidents of violence.
Does This Make Sense for Your Organization?
Contact us to learn more about SOS EagleEyeTM AI and how we can tailor our platform to fit your unique security needs.