ICE Bars Agents From Wearing Meta AI Smart Glasses on Duty

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has told its agents to leave the Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses at home. The New York Times reported the internal guidance after months of sightings of ICE and Customs and Border Protection personnel wearing the AI glasses on duty in six states.

The agency's line is procedural. "The agency's policy prohibits employees from using personal recording devices while on duty," CryptoBriefing reported, and ICE's body-worn camera guidelines have long required agents to use only agency-issued equipment. The Ray-Ban Metas carry a built-in camera, on-device AI, and a small indicator light that signals when they are recording. Meta and its manufacturing partner EssilorLuxottica designed the frames to look almost indistinguishable from regular Ray-Bans.

The sightings that put pressure on the policy were specific. 404 Media reported that at a June immigration raid outside a Home Depot in Los Angeles, a CBP agent wore the glasses on the job. Border Patrol agents were photographed in Ray-Ban Metas while filming protesters in Evanston, Illinois in December. DHS personnel have been spotted in the smart glasses in six states since January 2025.

The memo does not close the surveillance file. DHS itself has asked for $7.5 million to build purpose-designed smart glasses that would let ICE agents identify people on the street in real time using facial recognition. It fits a wider pattern; last week the England and Wales court service banned Meta smart glasses from its courtrooms, and the U.S. Air Force pulled the same devices from airmen citing operational security. The consumer device is being pushed out of one uniformed setting after another. What law enforcement builds to replace it is the bigger question.