The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is deploying AI in immigration enforcement, which is largely untested, undisclosed, and unreviewed, giving the U.S. a preview of how AI could reshape executive power. Records produced through recent Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation by Just Futures Law, Pangea Legal Services, and Mijente show that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operated roughly 42 AI tools internally as of May 2024, but only 23 tools appeared in DHS’s public AI Use Case Inventory at the time. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) operated approximately 75 AI systems in the same FOIA-era records, 62 of them active, a figure that has since converged with CBP’s public inventory page, which lists roughly 60 active use cases. (Published August 5, 2026.)
AUTHOR: Camille Mackler, Watchfire Board Member
