Power Grab/Fire anyone who can stop him
DHS’s 2025 AI inventory lists 238 systems, 86 in law enforcement, 35 of them “high-impact”
DHS published the inventory on January 28, 2026 under OMB memorandum M-25-21, so the count is the agency’s own.
What happened
On January 28, 2026, DHS published its 2025 AI use-case inventory, listing 238 systems, 86 of them in law enforcement. Customs and Border Protection had 83 and ICE had 51, together more than half the total, and ICE’s count nearly doubled from 2024. The law-enforcement cases were 49 at CBP and 29 at ICE.
DHS classified 35 of the law-enforcement systems, and 55 overall, as “high-impact.” OMB defines the term as AI whose output “serves as a principal basis for decisions or actions that have a legal, material, binding, or significant effect on rights or safety.” Another 46 were presumed high-impact but found not to be.
The systems include the Mobile Fortify facial-recognition app and ICE tip processing. The inventory also described a passport anomaly model, smartphone forensics triage, and open-source and social-media analysis. A February 2025 inspector general report had found DHS omitted 66 use cases, including ICE’s facial recognition, from earlier mandatory reporting.
Who benefited
ICE and CBP expanded their deployed AI sharply, and their high-impact systems now shape who is flagged, stopped and investigated. Vendors supplying facial recognition, forensics and analytics tools to the department also gained.
Who wanted something
DHS leadership wanted AI as a force multiplier for the administration’s deportation targets, with a stretched workforce. A federal CIO said in 2025 that AI could mitigate staffing losses. OMB’s memo required the disclosure, so the count is the agency’s own.
Who lost out
People subject to immigration and border enforcement can be detained, inspected or investigated on a system’s output rather than an officer’s judgment. They have limited ability to contest an algorithmic flag. The public learned of the scale only through a compliance filing.
Why it matters
DHS itself labels 35 of its law-enforcement systems as AI whose output drives decisions with legal force. They sit in the agencies conducting mass deportation, under an oversight regime the inspector general had already found wanting.
Sources U.S. Department of Homeland Security (primary)Office of Management and Budget (GitHub) (primary)Nextgov/FCWFedScoop