Regardless of privacy concerns, the federal government has an apparent push to track license plates as a way to find fugitive undocumented immigrants. The federal agency tasked with arresting and deporting undocumented immigrants, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, put out an official request last week for contractors to submit bids for commercial technology that would help the agency and its law enforcement officers to tap into the National License Plate Recognition Database, or NLPR.

“The database should track vehicle license plate numbers that pass through cameras or are voluntarily entered into the system from a variety of sources (access control systems, asset recovery specialists, etc.) and uploaded to share with law enforcement," the request for proposals stated.

"NLPR information will be used by DHS/ICE to assist in the location and arrest of absconders and criminal aliens.”

The technology that ICE wants developed for the agency would allow agents to use smart phones to quickly snap a photo of a license plate and quickly determine the plate is on a "hot list" of "target vehicles." License plate readers, however, would automatically record information on all vehicles that cross their paths instead of just suspect vehicles. &

quot;This system is supposed to be for the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement branch of DHS, for the tracking of illegal immigrants," said J.J. Green, a national security correspondent in Washington D.C. for WTOP radio. […]