Article: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/03/mobile-fortify-face-scan-dhs-kristi-noem-database-technology/

Original Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDsYzd4ITq0

They came to his workplace armed with guns, gas canisters and artificial intelligence. He fought back with his quick wit and street smarts.

What happened next is a preview of what routine face scans could look like on American streets, in this special France 24–Mother Jones report.

Abdikafi Abdurahman Abdullahi, known as Kafi, is one of the few people willing to speak publicly about being subjected to the Department of Homeland Security’s new facial recognition tool, Mobile Fortify.

The Somali-American engineer-turned-Uber driver was waiting for a fare in an airport rideshare lot on January 7th, just hours after Renee Good was shot and killed by federal agents. As he watched a video of her death on his phone, there was a knock on his car door. Outside stood roughly a dozen ICE agents, demanding proof of his citizenship.

Kafi, who is Black and Muslim, refused to show his ID, arguing he was being racially profiled. Instead, he began filming, and his unflappable, mischievous comebacks transformed his video into a viral sensation.

The Department of Homeland Security officially acknowledged the existence of Mobile Fortify in January. But by then it had already been used over 100,000 times in American communities, according to recent court filings.

“This is taking a big and very scary step toward a kind of totalitarian checkpoint society that we have always professed to abhor here in the United States,” warned ACLU attorney Nate Wessler.