The Biden administration used technology to help hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants enter the U.S., and now Republicans want to harness technology to get them out.
Rep. Nancy Mace, chair of the House Oversight Committee’s cybersecurity and information technology committee, will convene a hearing next week to explore the opportunities.
“While the Biden administration intentionally created the worst border crisis in our nation’s history and allowed criminal aliens to pour into our communities, this body is committed to identifying innovative avenues to deploy cutting-edge technology to help federal immigration agents get criminal aliens off the streets so they can be deported,” said Ms. Mace, South Carolina Republican.
The hearing, titled “Leveraging Technology to Strengthen Immigration Enforcement,” is scheduled for March 4.
Witnesses scheduled to testify are John Fabbricatore, a former senior official at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s deportation division; Doug Gilmer, a former special agent at ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations; and Simon Hankinson, a border specialist at the Heritage Foundation.
They will testify about existing uses and future opportunities.
President Trump has made huge strides in shutting down illegal border crossings but his team has signaled frustration at the pace of arrests and deportations of illegal immigrants already in the U.S. interior, where millions of new arrivals settled under Mr. Biden.
As officials search for answers, technology has become a focal point.
Homeland Security was already using artificial intelligence to assist in awarding citizenship and to determine whether a deportation target should be detained, according to a December report by Mijente, an immigration rights group, and Just Futures Law.
AI is also used to monitor some migrants who have been released pending their immigration court hearings.
Homeland Security this week announced it had set up a registration website for illegal immigrants, which is part of a broader effort to encourage them to self-deport.
The Biden administration, meanwhile, used online technology to bring in more unauthorized migrants. In particular the CBP One App, an application run by Customs and Border Protection, allowed would-be illegal immigrants to enter the U.S. without a legal visa as long as they scheduled their arrivals beforehand.
Mr. Trump has shut down that use of CBP One App.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.