DHS surveillance spending tops $2.9B as domestic enforcement architecture expands The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has recorded more than $2.9 billion in contract obligations since January 2021 for technologies capable of watching, identifying, locating and compiling detailed profiles of people inside the United States, according to a new Brennan Center for Justice analysis. An analysis of the Brennan Center’s underlying contract spreadsheet by Biometric Update shows the spending is accelerating. Approximately $1.36 billion in obligations have been recorded since President Donald Trump returned to office, including about $805 million through July 26, 2026—already more than the total identified for any full year from 2021 through 2025. The spending spans facial recognition and other biometrics, drones, commercial data purchases, cellphone extraction and location tools, and AI-driven analytical platforms that combine information from government and private databases. Rather than documenting a single surveillance technology, the report maps an increasingly integrated enforcement architecture in which multiple systems work together to identify, locate and profile people. Biometrics account for the largest share Biometric programs account for approximately $1.1 billion of the obligations identified by the Center, more than any of its other five categories. Much of that amount supports the expansion and maintenance of DHS’s central biometric infrastructure, including its legacy Automated Biometric Identification System (IDENT) and the Homeland Advanced Recognition Technology program intended to succeed it. General Dynamics, Peraton and Science Applications International Corporation are among the principal contractors. Another large portion went to Amentum and Pluribus Digital for collecting biometric and biographical information from applicants seeking immigration related benefits. The category also includes mobile identification systems that bring biometric searches out of controlled enrollment centers and into field operations. Among them is Mobile Fortify, the NEC-developed facial recognition application used by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement