Sponsors (6)
The bill strengthens privacy and limits the spread of DHS biometric-collection tools—protecting individuals from broader surveillance—but imposes costs and operational constraints that could complicate immigration processing and slow some DHS field activities.
Immigrants, travelers, and border communities will have their biometric data (e.g., photos, fingerprints) deleted quickly and sharing limited to ports of entry, reducing risk of misuse and broader surveillance.
Federal and state entities will see reduced risk of unauthorized retention or continued operation of DHS biometric collection tools because DHS must disable and remove the apps from non‑DHS devices.
Immigrants and state/local agencies may face complications in immigration processing and recordkeeping because short‑term retention that assists investigations or admissibility decisions will be curtailed.
Federal operational units that currently rely on the mobile apps for field identification may have reduced access to those tools at ports of entry, potentially slowing some DHS operations and border processing.
Taxpayers and DHS will bear implementation costs and added operational burden to inventory, remove/disable apps, and purge data within required timeframes.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Introduced January 15, 2026 by Bennie Thompson · Last progress January 15, 2026
Prohibits the Department of Homeland Security from using two named mobile biometric applications except for identification at ports of entry, bans sharing those apps with other government agencies, requires removal and remote disabling of the apps from DHS and non‑DHS devices, and orders destruction of biometric images and fingerprints of U.S. citizens captured by those apps (with port‑of‑entry captures destroyed within 12 hours). DHS must issue department‑wide standards and guidelines to implement these requirements within 30 days of enactment.