Smile, you're on camera: Facial recognition app gives ICE access to 200 million photos- EVRYBDY News: July 23, 2025

Good morning, everybody! Today is Wednesday, July 23, 2025 and you are reading EVRYBDY News, news for everybody, about everybody.

This is what everybody (should be) talking about this morning:

Jenny Wright

That selfie you posted? The license photo you hate? Congratulations—they're all part of ICE's new digital dragnet.

Internal documents leaked to 404 Media reveal that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are now walking around with a smartphone app called Mobile Fortify that can scan your face and instantly pull up everything the feds know about you. We're talking 200 million photos linked to names, immigration status, nationality—everything about you, served up faster than a Starbucks order.

No "papers, please." No awkward small talk. Just point, click and suddenly ICE knows whether you're "worth" their time.

This isn't just face ID—it's a full biometric buffet. The app can scan your fingerprints without you even touching anything, cross-reference vehicle registrations, dig through airline databases, check your phone number, even see if you own guns. There's something called "Super Query" mode that lets agents rifle through multiple government databases simultaneously, like some dystopian Google search for your entire existence.

And here's the kicker: it completely sidesteps your constitutional right to remain silent when confronted by law enforcement.

"When an officer says, 'papers please,' you could choose to say nothing and face the consequences; with face recognition, your options are diminished," Dave Maass from the Electronic Frontier Foundation told reporters. Your silence used to be golden. Now your face does all the talking.

Built to Profile, Designed to Discriminate

Civil liberties experts aren't buying ICE's line that this is just another "enforcement tool." Jake Laperruque from the Center for Democracy and Technology warns that ICE might actually prefer a system that makes mistakes—especially if those mistakes give them an excuse to hassle people who "look suspicious” (i.e. anyone who’s brown).

"I worry ICE could be embracing a less accurate system because they're indifferent to mistakes or even trying to build in systems that maximize chances of producing a 'match,'" Laperruque said.

This is just high-tech racial profiling with a tech makeover. ICE is already getting sued in California for stops that the ACLU says "indiscriminately target people of color." A federal judge had to literally ban them from stopping people unless they have "reasonable suspicion"—you know, that thing the Constitution already requires.

But ICE's definition of "suspicious" is pretty broad: how you look, where you are, what job you do. ICE Director Tom Homan has straight-up said agents don't need probable cause to detain someone "briefly"—a PC way of saying they can violate your Fourth Amendment rights as long as they don't take too long doing it.

Your face used to be yours. Now it's evidence.

Jenny Wright

For over a month, an Emmy-winning journalist sits in a South Georgia detention center because he had the “audacity” to cover a protest against Trump's immigration crackdown.

Mario Guevara wasn't some random guy with a camera phone. The El Salvador native spent over two decades building a career in Spanish-language journalism, informing Atlanta's Hispanic community through his work at Mundo Hispanico and his own digital outlet, MG News.

The whole thing started June 14, when Guevara was covering the ‘No Kings’ protests in DeKalb County. Police slapped him with a laundry list of misdemeanor charges: improperly entering a roadway, obstruction and unlawful assembly. Then Gwinnett County piled on three more for good measure: distracted driving, failing to obey traffic signals and reckless driving.

An immigrant from El Salvador, Guevara has been a resident of the U.S. for more than 20 years and is authorized to work in this country. However, the misdemeanor charges after his arrest allowed ICE to place a detainer on him, paving the way for a potential deportation.

Despite all charges against Guevara being dropped, he was transferred to ICE custody three days after his arrest and has been unjustly detained for over a month at the Folkston ICE Processing Center, a facility poised to become the largest immigrant detention center in the country.

His lawyer, Giovanni Diaz, says the experience has shaken Guevara "to his core." The attorney noted: "He's an incredibly positive person, he leans on his faith and his family, and he continues to do that while in detention. But I think there's certain things that have him shaken to his core." Guevara came to the United States over 20 years ago, pays taxes, raised a family, won journalism awards and now he's in a cage because some cops didn't like him documenting their crowd control tactics.

"Since he's been detained, our family has felt an emptiness that we cannot begin to fill," his daughter Katherine Guevara said at Tuesday's press conference. "My mom is exhausted. My brothers and I feel like we're stuck in a nightmare."

She continued: "This is not just about one journalist. This is about what kind of country we want to be. If a government can punish a reporter for doing his job, what message does that send? What protections are left for the rest of us?"

Of course the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had to weigh-in on Elon’s internet, saying, “Accusations that Mario Guevara was arrested by ICE because he is a journalist are completely untrue," adding that "this El Salvador national is in ICE custody because he entered the country illegally in 2004."

Let’s unpack this: Guevara fled El Salvador in 2004 because of violence related to his reporting. He applied for asylum, but an immigration judge rejected it in 2012, but according to his lawyer, the case was "ultimately resolved" and Guevara got work authorization. He currently has a pending green card application sponsored by his U.S. citizen son.

Civil rights lawyer Nora Benavidez nailed it when she connected Guevara's case to other recent ICE detentions: "Mario Guevara's case feels emblematic of the disturbing path that the United States is on," she said, linking his situation to those of other immigrants who were detained by ICE after speaking out on political issues.

"If the exercise of [First Amendment] rights is now penalized like it is with Mario Guevara, simply because those in power dislike the message or the messenger, that means that our basic freedoms are not free," Benavidez said. "They have become privileges doled out for good behavior if those in power allow it."

Guevara's detention is part of a coordinated assault on independent journalism that's accelerating under the current administration. While an Emmy-winning reporter sits in a detention cell, NPR and PBS are getting their funding slashed. Apparently, the Trump Administration believes reporting facts without corporate spin is too dangerous for democracy.

Then there's CBS pulling the plug on The Late Show, one of the few remaining platforms where politicians actually faced tough questions disguised as comedy. Sure, late-night TV isn't supposed to be hard-hitting journalism, but let’s be real: Colbert is isn’t being canceled because of budget cuts. He’s being censored by network execs too afraid to upset Trump the snowflake.

Additionally, Trump is going full authoritarian by suing Rupert Murdoch and the Wall Street Journal over their Epstein reporting. Think about that for a second: The guy who used to call the WSJ his favorite paper is now trying to bankrupt them through litigation because they dared to connect some uncomfortable dots.

This is what the slow strangulation of press freedom looks like: immigrant journalists in cages, public media defunded, satirists silenced and now billionaire publishers getting sued for actually reporting the facts.

This isn't about one journalist or one family's nightmare. It's about a system that can destroy lives on a whim, where a traffic ticket can lead to indefinite detention, where doing your job as a reporter can get you caged like an animal.

An immigration judge granted Guevara bond three weeks ago. ICE appealed it, so he sits and waits while lawyers argue over whether a 20-year resident with deep community ties and zero criminal convictions deserves to come home to his family.

In the words of Childish Gambino, This is America. The United States is the now a country where journalists can disappear into the detention system for the “crime” of holding powerful people accountable and where truth is silenced if the president “doesn’t like it”.

Jenny Wright

There’s something quintessentially American about believing that technology can solve problems decades of policy failures couldn’t touch. Enter The Aurora’s Embrace, a 501(c)(3) public benefit corporation operating out of a K Street address in D.C., because nothing says "grassroots food justice" like sharing office space with lobbyists. The group claims it will tackle food deserts using AI-powered vertical farming towers.

Their first target? Prince William County, where founder convenience meets community need in what the organization calls "hyper-targeting." Translation: they're starting where the boss lives.

The Aurora's Embrace has cooked up what sounds like a Silicon Valley fever dream crossed with a farmers market fever dream. Their "AI Smart Vertical Aeroponic Grow Towers" are supposed to sprout up on rooftops and in alleys, churning out leafy greens while algorithms monitor pH levels and "adapt lighting" with "minimal human oversight."

The towers allegedly use 90% less water than conventional farming and grow food without soil in "controlled environments."

Instead of chasing grants or courting deep-pocketed donors, Aurora's Embrace claims to be funding their agricultural revolution through artisan soap sales.

Let's be clear: food deserts are real and they're a legitimate epidemic. The USDA confirms that millions of Americans live in areas where accessing fresh, affordable produce requires time and travel. Prince William County absolutely has neighborhoods where the nearest grocery store might as well be on Mars.

Here's where the skepticism starts. Food deserts aren't just about physical access to produce; they're about poverty, transportation, working multiple jobs and systemic inequality that can't be solved by dropping a fancy tower in an alley. The problem isn't that communities don't know vegetables exist; it's that healthy food is expensive, time-intensive to prepare and often inaccessible to people living in survival mode.

Aurora's Embrace seems to understand this, at least on paper. They talk about "community-first implementation" and consulting with "neighborhood associations and local schools." They've apparently surveyed residents who say inspiring things about vacant spaces blooming with possibility. But who conducted these surveys? Which neighborhoods? When? The details are conveniently vague.

Give Aurora's Embrace credit for one thing: they're putting on a good show when it comes to transparency. They promise public ledgers, independently audited impact reports and open-source software for their AI systems. They've structured themselves as a public benefit corporation, legally committing to "prioritizing public impact over private gain."

This sounds great until you remember that plenty of organizations wrap themselves in do-good language while their founders live comfortably off "operational expenses" and "administrative costs." The fact that they're planning to license their technology to municipalities raises questions about who really benefits from all this innovation.

No tech-savior nonprofit is complete without an education component and Aurora's Embrace delivers. They're planning "curriculum-aligned STEM programming," "classroom partnerships" and "student-led tower maintenance." Children of lower-income families (most like exclusively black and brown kids) will get observation journals and hands-on learning modules about plant science.

This isn't necessarily bad, getting young people engaged with where food comes from is valuable. But it's also the kind of feel-good addition that makes great grant applications and glowing news coverage while potentially distracting from harder questions about whether these towers actually feed anyone.

Here's where Aurora's Embrace either reveals genuine ambition or spectacular naivety: they want to create a "distributed network of community-led deployments" that will foster "food sovereignty" in neighborhoods "excluded from agricultural decision-making."

Food sovereignty is a serious concept with deep roots in social justice movements worldwide. It's about communities controlling their own food systems, not having robotic solutions that may take over the neighborhood.

For all their talk of transparency, Aurora's Embrace is remarkably coy about some basic details. How much do these towers cost? How much food do they actually produce? What happens when the AI systems need repairs that local communities can't afford? Who maintains the infrastructure long-term?

They mention partnerships with universities and food banks, discussions with regional co-ops and applications for various awards. But it's all very preliminary, very hypothetical. For an organization that's been operational long enough to develop branded soap and conduct community surveys, there's surprisingly little concrete evidence of impact.

Look, maybe The Aurora's Embrace is onto something. Maybe AI-powered vertical farming really can democratize food production and their soap-funded model will prove sustainable. Maybe their community-first approach is genuine and their K Street address is just a coincidence.

Food justice advocates aren’t fully convinced. They have seen plenty of well-intentioned initiatives that promise to revolutionize everything while changing very little.

Until we see actual towers feeding actual people with actual community ownership and control, Aurora's Embrace remains what it is right now: a compelling story about what might be possible, funded by people buying farmers’ markets soap and believing in the promise of technological salvation.

Jenny Wright

A new clinical trial offers hopeful news for women undergoing breast cancer treatment: vitamin D may help chemotherapy work better.

In the study, 80 women with breast cancer received either a daily vitamin D supplement or a placebo while undergoing chemotherapy before surgery. Those who took 2,000 IU of vitamin D were nearly twice as likely to have no detectable cancer in their breast tissue after treatment compared to those who didn’t supplement (43% vs. 24%).

Why it matters: Vitamin D plays a role in immune function and helps regulate how cells grow and die—key processes in cancer treatment. The study also found that women with sufficient vitamin D levels in their blood were three times more likely to have a complete response to chemo, regardless of other health factors.

Many breast cancer patients are low on vitamin D, especially after starting chemotherapy. Supplementing with a safe, affordable dose could be a simple way to improve outcomes, although more research is needed.

The bottom line: A daily dose of vitamin D may offer a low-risk boost to chemotherapy’s power, helping more women move forward with clearer scans and stronger hope.

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