The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is a federal deployer of AI concentrated in law-enforcement and border-security use cases, spanning its component agencies including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). DHS maintains a publicly available AI Use Case Inventory Library cataloging AI systems in use across the department.
AI uses and deployments
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
ICE has stated that it uses AI tools from Palantir Technologies and OpenAI, as reported by The Information on January 29, 2026 ("ICE Says It Uses AI From Palantir, OpenAI"). The tools are applied to case management, intelligence analysis, and targeting.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
CBP entered a two-year contract with Altana AI on October 31, 2025 for AI-enabled trade-compliance screening, described as central to enforcing Section 232 national security tariffs on steel and aluminum. CBP also uses facial recognition at borders, drawing on systems tested through the Face Recognition Vendor Test (FRVT). Reporting by MIT Tech Review (August 14, 2024) described a proposal to use facial recognition to identify migrant children as they age ("The US wants to use facial recognition to identify migrant children as they age").
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)
CISA's cyber tools are increasingly AI-augmented. The agency's handling of AI tools has also drawn oversight attention: Sen. Grassley Letter to CISA re ChatGPT (2026-02-05) concerns the acting director's uploading of sensitive documents to public ChatGPT.
Surveillance and facial recognition
DHS and CBP use of facial recognition at borders sits within a broader set of identity and surveillance deployments. Clear, an identity-management company, has expanded beyond airports (MIT Tech Review, November 20, 2024). MIT Tech Review reporting (May 12, 2025) described a new type of AI used by police to skirt facial recognition bans ("How a new type of AI is helping police skirt facial recognition bans"), while separate reporting tracked the movement to limit facial recognition (MIT Tech Review, July 20, 2023 onward).
Media production
DHS has used Google and Adobe AI tools to produce videos, as reported by MIT Tech Review on January 29, 2026 ("DHS is using Google and Adobe AI to make videos").
Relationships
- deployed-by: Palantir Technologies, OpenAI, Altana AI, Clear, Google, Adobe.
- related: AI and Surveillance, Sen. Grassley Letter to CISA re ChatGPT (2026-02-05), Federal AI Adoption — Patterns and Tensions, Government AI Procurement, OMB Memorandum M-24-10.