New federal procurement data show that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), part of the Department of Homeland Security, has awarded another multi-million dollar contract to Clearview AI for facial recognition software. The award appears in USAspending.gov under purchase order number 70CMSD25P00000111 and lists Clearview AI as the recipient and DHS as the awarding agency. The award is classified as In Progress and carries the description “THIS AWARD PROCURES FACIAL RECOGNITION SOFTWARE”, with a period of performance extending into 2027.
Additional detail from federal procurement systems shows that the contract was signed on September 5, 2025, by ICE’s Investigations and Operations Support office in Dallas. FPDS entries for the award list it as a firm fixed-price purchase order under NAICS code 513210 (software publishers) and PSC code 7A21 (IT and telecom business application software). FPDS records indicate an initial action obligation of 3.75 million dollars. Third-party aggregators that summarize federal contracts, drawing from FPDS and related sources, describe the deal as a 9.225 million dollar contract for investigative software to support homeland security investigations, suggesting that the total potential value over the contract term may exceed the initial obligation.
The contract was awarded on a sole-source basis, according to a federal opportunity record that notes the requirement was competed directly with Clearview AI and references a justification and approval document for non-competitive procurement. The deal continues a pattern of ICE and other federal agencies using Clearview AI under successive purchase orders dating back to at least 2020, including prior contracts with ICE, the FBI, the U.S. Marshals Service, Army, and Air Force.
The award is significant on several fronts. It confirms that Clearview AI’s controversial facial recognition technology remains embedded in U.S. federal investigative workflows, even as regulators in Europe and some jurisdictions in the United States have raised concerns or imposed penalties over similar deployments. It also shows that ICE is continuing to invest in proprietary facial recognition software rather than shifting toward more centralized or standardized biometric platforms. Agencies considering their own biometric procurement strategies will be watching closely how DHS justifies sole-source awards of this scale, how it manages audit and oversight of investigative use, and how it addresses the broader governance and reputational issues that accompany large-scale face search capabilities.
Sources: USAspending.gov, FPDS.gov, HigherGov, GovTribe, SAM.gov
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By Ali Nassar-Smith
