The U.S. government’s use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) surveillance has increased rapidly in the last five years. For example, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has access to over 640 million photographs that can be used for facial recognition. In 2025, Congress passed the Big Beautiful Bill, which made ICE the highest-funded law enforcement agency in the country. ICE is using those funds to acquire powerful surveillance tools in furtherance of the Trump administration’s mass detention and deportation agenda, including fingerprinting and performing facial recognition on citizens and immigrants in real time, monitoring social media, and searching license plate data.

Private companies develop AI that maximizes their profits without regulation. The lack of a comprehensive federal data privacy law allows private companies to collect personal information without limitation, transfer that data to law enforcement and other private companies, and make inferences and predictions about individuals with few safeguards for rights, security, bias, and transparency. Legal practitioners warn that the development of AI with unfettered access to personal information and increased use of this technology by federal and state law enforcement for surveillance poses serious risks to privacy, safety, civil liberties, and civil rights, and perpetuates and furthers bias and discrimination.

While AI systems may offer efficiency and other positive applications for federal and state governments, and the data obtained through AI surveillance may aid public safety, the use of AI surveillance should occur only with public understanding and feedback, notice and informed consent, and authorization by all relevant legislative bodies. President Trump and his loyalists are eroding due process and the rule of law, and the continued use of AI surveillance without regulation will further erode the rights of people living in the United States, including First and Fourth Amendment rights.

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This Memo sets forth the principles that should govern AI surveillance of people living in the United States regardless of citizenship status. The Memo begins with a brief description of AI, ethical concerns, and current U.S. regulation of AI. The Memo then discusses various types of surveillance technology, including AI powered surveillance. The Memo concludes with a suggested regulatory framework for AI surveillance and a call for comprehensive privacy legislation in the United States.