World
ICE's Sole-Source Notice Adds 1,570 Scanners and Watchlist Alerts
ICE's May 8 notice of intent to sole-source adds 1,570 additional iris scanners to a Bi2 Technologies fleet already deployed nationwide, and gives ERO field agents standing watchlist alerts across a 247-agency booking network. DHS has filed zero Privacy Impact Assessments through mid-May 2026.
ICE posted a notice of intent to sole-source 1,570 additional iris scanners on May 8, adding to a 200-device fleet from a September 2025 sole-source award.
Both contracts went to Bi2 Technologies of Massachusetts, and neither drew competitive bids. The September 2025 award cost $4.6 million. The May 2026 notice carries no posted price; the 12-month firm-fixed-price contract runs June 1 through May 31, 2027.
The statement of objectives names ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations division as the primary user. ERO oversees arrests, detention, and deportation nationwide. The SOO describes the operational rationale as speed: iris matching returns a result in seconds, where fingerprint checks take hours.
Bi2's network holds 5.025 million booking records drawn from 247 law enforcement agencies, captured at jail intake and covering 1.5 million unique individuals.
The Bi2 system includes two modes of access. The first is on-demand: a field agent scans an iris during an encounter and receives a match within seconds. The second is a standing watchlist subscription, configured by ERO agents, that pushes an alert whenever any of the 247 partner agencies scans a tracked individual.
When that alert fires, it routes to the ERO agent who configured the criteria. That positions ERO to issue a detainer before the person is released from local custody.
The watchlist function converts Bi2's database from a reference tool into a monitoring layer. The 1.5 million individuals enrolled were booked at jail intake; the database includes people never convicted alongside those who were. The Bi2 network pushes an alert to ERO the moment any partner facility scans one of them.
DHS has filed zero Privacy Impact Assessments through mid-May 2026, compared with eight in all of 2025. The E-Government Act of 2002 requires a PIA before any federal system collects or identifies information about the public. Scaling this system from 200 devices to roughly 1,770 without filing one is the specific gap that law was written to close.
The SAM.gov award record posts by June 1, with the contract price the May 8 notice omitted. A PIA filed alongside it would be the first DHS privacy review of 2026. If none appears, roughly 1,770 iris scanners will be running nationwide with zero oversight filings behind them.