Dem Congressman Wants to Make ICE Agents Wear QR Codes

Rep. Ritchie Torres, a Democratic congressman from New York, says he’s going to introduce legislation to require that all ICE and CBP agents wear a QR code on their uniforms. The idea is that people on the street can scan the code to get information like the officer’s name, badge number, and the agency they work for.

But the proposal is stirring debate online about whether such a lawless agency would abide by the rules. And perhaps more importantly, whether adding tech is the right solution when a requirement to simply add names to officer uniforms would be a more practical fix.

Axios first reported on the proposed legislation on Tuesday, and a representative for Torres told Gizmodo the plan is to introduce the House bill next week.

“The concept is that it could limit confrontations with an officer that could go south,†Benny Stanislawski, communications director for Rep Torres, told Gizmodz›o on Wednesday. “Someone can get a picture from afar without having to engage with the officer, as we’ve seen instances of ICE obscuring their faces and badges and not reacting positively to requests for identification.â€

The legislation is called the Quick Recognition (QR) Act, and it would require the Department of Homeland Security to create a verification page that lists:

• Officer’s full name
• Badge number
• Agency (ICE or CBP)
• Operational unit or office (field office or sector)
• Photo confirmation (optional)
• Verification timestamp confirming active duty status

The law specifically says that the pages should not list the home address or phone number of officers.

Many of the secret police currently on America’s streets aren’t wearing badges or other ways for the public to easily identify them. President Donald Trump’s masked goons are terrorizing the country right now, arresting residents on false pretenses, assaulting protesters, and even shooting a woman dead in Minneapolis. It’s all in the name of “immigration enforcement,†though Trump’s real goal is to purge the country of anyone who isn’t white and violently punish those who oppose him.

And Torres seems to genuinely think QR codes can help. Stanislawski pointed to some police uniforms in the Dominican Republic that have integrated QR codes for identification purposes. Below you can see the QR code on the left arm of the uniform.

Notably, the police uniforms in the Dominican Republic also include the agency, rank, and name of the officer, in addition to the QR codes. And it seems like including that in the proposed legislation by Torres would make a lot more sense than requiring the QR code alone. If officers can only be identified by members of the public who have phones handy—almost a kind of tech tax—where does that leave people who may not have access to a phone for one reason or another?

The Torres proposal has stirred plenty of debate on social media about what the law might actually accomplish, with some people expressing extreme skepticism that it will provide more accountability. “Scanning the officers’ QR codes as they bash my face in and steal my phone,†one Bluesky user wrote in a reply to Torres.

That joke about a stolen phone is likely referring to a new article from ProPublica about a 16-year-old in Houston, Texas, who was placed in a chokehold by federal agents and recorded much of the encounter. The agents took his phone, and he used the Find My feature to track it to a vending machine where people can sell used phones. The vending machine was near an ICE detention center, according to ProPublica, and the agents had apparently sold his phone.

The ICE agent who shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Good, identified by the Star Tribune as Jonathan Ross, covered his face and didn’t appear to have any kind of identification visible that would identify him individually. His chest and back read “police†in large letters and “federal agent†in much smaller letters.

Ross was only identified by the local newspaper after DHS said he had experienced a previous incident with an immigrant in a car. That allowed reporters at the Star Tribune to comb through federal court records to narrow down who they might be talking about. Without that detail, it’s unclear how long it may have taken to learn Ross’s identity. And it remains to be seen whether a QR code would’ve helped anything at all.