The Federal Government Just Bought 1,500 Iris Scanners — Here Is How They Work and Where They Will Be Used
The Department of Homeland Security awarded a $25 million no-bid contract last week to BI2 Technologies — a company that specializes in iris recognition — for more than 1,500 iris scanners and access to the company's mobile app and database as part of its mass deportation efforts. The contract is more than five times the amount of the company's previous DHS contract awarded last fall. DHS confirmed in a statement that ICE officers use iris recognition technology "to assist in accurately identifying individuals encountered during immigration enforcement and removal operations, including confirming identities and backgrounds of individuals who may be subject to enforcement actions."
The technology works in two confirmed settings. In jails and immigration detention facilities, a camera device mounted on a pole captures iris images when detainees arrive for booking — the image goes into a searchable database. In the field, ICE officers use BI2's smartphone app to identify people, particularly when someone does not have identification on them. The iris is unique to each person, similar to a fingerprint, and cannot change over a person's lifetime. During the first Trump administration BI2 donated iris scanners to sheriffs in the Southwestern Border Sheriffs' Coalition along the U.S.-Mexico border. The current contract expands the program to a national scale.
Privacy experts at the Center on Privacy and Technology at Georgetown Law are raising concerns that DHS is amassing a biometric database of everyone it detains — not just those confirmed to be subject to enforcement actions. Unlike a fingerprint database limited to criminal records, an iris scan database built through immigration enforcement operations would include the biometric data of asylum seekers, legal visa holders, and U.S. citizens who happen to be present during enforcement operations. The specific locations where the 1,500 scanners will be deployed have not been made public by DHS.
One in Four Student Loan Borrowers Over 40 Is Behind on Payments — Here Is What the Data Actually Shows
The student loan delinquency rate reached 10.3 percent of all balances 90 or more days past due in the first quarter of 2026, up from 9.6 percent in Q4 2025, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Approximately 2.6 million student loan borrowers who were more than 120 days past due had their loans transferred to the Department of Education's Default Resolution Group. The number looks alarming. The context explains why it happened and who it is hitting hardest.
Before the first quarter of 2025 the reported student loan delinquency rate was less than one percent — not because borrowers were paying, but because the federal government had suspended reporting of missed student loan payments to credit bureaus during the pandemic payment pause that ran from Q2 2020 through Q4 2024. When reporting resumed in Q1 2025, four years of accumulated missed payments appeared on credit reports simultaneously. A total of 3.6 million federal student loan borrowers have now defaulted.
The data on who is falling behind is specific. One in four student loan borrowers over the age of 40 with a payment due is at least 90 days past due, according to Liberty Street Economics analysis. The average age of a delinquent student loan borrower has risen from 38.6 to 40.4. Credit scores for defaulted borrowers dropped an average of 91 points — from 567 to 476. The Urban Institute found that today's delinquent student loan borrowers are substantially more likely to also hold mortgage and auto loan debt — meaning a student loan default today is more likely to trigger broader financial distress across a household's entire debt profile.
A federal student loan enters default after 270 days of missed payments — nine months. Once a loan is in default the consequences are immediate and significant. The entire balance of the loan becomes due immediately — not just the missed payments. The default is reported to all three major credit bureaus, typically causing a significant drop in credit score. The borrower loses eligibility for additional federal student aid, income-driven repayment plans, and deferment or forbearance options.
The federal government has collection tools available to it that private creditors do not. The government can garnish up to 15 percent of a borrower's disposable wages without going to court. It can seize federal tax refunds. It can garnish Social Security benefits — including retirement, disability, and survivor benefits. These collection tools are currently suspended for federal student loan borrowers with no clear timeline for resumption. But the suspension is a policy choice that can be reversed at any time. Borrowers who have already defaulted have options to get out of default. Loan rehabilitation allows a borrower to make nine on-time monthly payments in a 10-month period to remove the default from their credit report. Loan consolidation allows a defaulted borrower to combine loans into a new Direct Consolidation Loan. Both options restore eligibility for income-driven repayment plans and federal aid. Information on both options is available at studentaid.gov.
This one is TRUE — and confirmed. Otter 841 is a real wild sea otter in Santa Cruz, California who has been documented stealing surfboards from surfers since at least 2021. Wildlife authorities working with the Monterey Bay Aquarium attempted to capture her in July 2023 in response to her behavior — she evaded them completely. She gave birth to a pup in October 2023, prompting officials to announce they no longer planned to capture her. She is confirmed real by Santa Cruz locals, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, California Fish and Wildlife, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife. A children's book was published in her honor in 2024. Surfers reported new otter-related incidents in October 2025, suggesting she — or a new recruit — may be back. Source: Snopes May 26, 2026.
Hera Bhatt, a 13-year-old from Georgia, won a top prize at the Regeneron Science Talent Search 2026 — one of the most prestigious science competitions in the United States — for developing a low-cost test that can detect whether honey has been adulterated with cheaper sweeteners like corn syrup or rice syrup. Honey fraud is a global problem estimated to affect up to a third of all commercial honey sold, costing consumers and legitimate beekeepers billions of dollars annually. Bhatt's test uses near-infrared spectroscopy to identify the chemical signature of pure honey versus adulterated products in minutes without destroying the sample. She developed the project after her family's beekeeping hobby prompted her to research why commercial honey prices were so much lower than what small producers could afford to charge. The Regeneron Science Talent Search — founded in 1942 — has produced more Nobel laureates and National Medal of Science recipients than any other pre-college science competition in the United States.