This is a three-part adaptation of my 2026 presentation at the European Identity and Cloud Conference. I’m releasing it after a week that fundamentally altered what it means to be “legal” in the United States. This week, there were 3 major Supreme Court decisions:
- Blanche v Lau – determines that traveling green card holders (Permanent Residents) can be treated as “applicants for entry,” detained, and their physical green cards confiscated at the discretion of border patrol officers.
- Mullin v Al Otro Lado – affirms that asylum seekers can be denied entry at a land border.
- Mullin v Doe affirmed the powers of the Executive Branch to revoke Temporary Protected Status from any community and without being subject to congressional or judicial review. We await its decision on Birthright Citizenship.
We live in an exciting world where a person can combine the power of large language models and gene editing technologies to cure our pets of cancer.
Amazing shifts are happening in the identity industry, our industry:
- Organizations understand the value in identity security – they’re increasingly willing to invest
- Vendors are rapidly advancing products to meet today’s needs and opportunities
- Verifiable credentials are on the cusp of empowering people all over the world
That is what we’re doing – we are all in this, building tech for the betterment of humans. I believe that’s true of almost all of us. Given that essential truth, we owe it to ourselves to ensure that the technologies we build aren’t turned against the people who need us most.
My 2025 EIC talk focused on how US identity systems exacerbate homelessness (and I’ll post that as a Part 4). That remains true. And yet a lot has changed since 2025.
Identity is at the Heart of Politics
I’m a deeply patriotic American. My home was built in 1750 and was once occupied by revolutionary soldiers. Every year, on the 4th of July I go down the road to the Old North Bridge at Minuteman National Park to hear re-enactors recite the Declaration of Independence (join me next week).
I’m also the daughter of a person who held a green card from 1983 to 2021.
For many reasons, personal and professional, it is not easy to speak or write on a topic that sounds “political.” But, ultimately, what happens in politics matters for the identity industry.
The changes we’re seeing in US politics aren’t unprecedented. Although the signs in our national parks are changing, our history does include witch trials, genocide, slavery, apartheid, internment, and torture. Many of us thought those things relegated to history – that those things would not happen again. What we are seeing now is deeply, deeply precedented – and “never again” is beginning to happen right now.
And while the changes aren’t unprecedented, the ways in which technology underpins, mediates, enables and accelerates the transition from policy to action – that truly is unprecedented. And that’s where you come in.
History is repeating itself – but with stronger identity & surveillance systems than ever before. We must be brave enough to confront the potential downstream consequences of our life’s work.
Because WE build the technologies that sit at the beating heart of politics:
- Who belongs – and who does not?
- How do we verify, provision, authenticate and assert belonging?
- What rights and permissions do those who do-or-don’t belong have?
Lesson 1: We Need Better Identity Infrastructure
Last year, I focused on unhoused Americans.
We don’t have the data to precisely size the problem. However, large percentages of unhoused people lack identity documentation at any given time – documentation they need to gain work, find housing, or get an education. Using national homelessness statistics, data from the Brennan Center, volumes and cost data from non-profits who work to help vulnerable people recover their IDs (such as ID Ministry in Washington D.C.), I arrived at an estimate that up to 25% of the unhoused lack the ID they need – and that there are $7Bn in societal costs shouldered by taxpayers and non-profit donors. This says nothing of the unrealized economic benefits of including millions of additional people in a productive economy. Better foundational identity systems are a crucial part of addressing these problems.
On July 24, three months after I presented on this topic, the president issued an Executive Order that declared homelessness a crime (EO 14321). By December, an estimated 150 camps populated by unhoused people had been cleared. The people still exist . . . …. They just “don’t have tents.” As a result, service providers – like doctors, lawyers, shelter staff, recovery experts, mental health practitioners – are having trouble finding these people.
Where have they gone? The July Executive Order allowed the involuntary institutionalization of homeless people in complexes like the one proposed in Utah. But I can’t help but wonder if some have been swept up in something darker – especially the meaningful proportion without ID.
For example, by July of last year, Florida’s Alligator Alcatraz – that is its official name – had started receiving detainees and reports of human rights violations immediately followed. Could the people swept up from homeless camps be there? Of course they could. Even people able to present valid US birth certificates are there. Citizens. What does this mean for people who are citizens – but lack the foundational documents to prove it?
Corollary 1a: Identity Systems Can Be Weaponized.
The United States critically needs better identity systems. But these identity systems can be weaponized because the definition of “who is legal” can change.
The Haitians of Springfield, Ohio
On the presidential debate stage, Trump argued that Haitians were eating the cats and dogs of Springfield, Ohio. This was immediately and famously debunked. He also said, “they came here illegally,” which was also a fabrication.
The Haitians in Springfield, Ohio had been granted the legal right to live and work in the US under a process called Temporary Protective Status. The program was established under republican president George HW Bush in 1990. For this process, they filled out I-94 arrival declarations; and their identities were recorded in DHS databases. Most also completed the USCIS i-765 for permission to work. Their biometrics were certainly collected. All recorded in digital identity systems. That’s us. That’s our industry.
The mayor of Springfield refuted Trump’s claims and said the Haitian immigrants were working, paying taxes, and meeting the town’s unmet needs…he emphasized that they grew Springfield’s economy. Meanwhile, the false claims led to bomb threats, chaos, and fears that pervaded the city.
“many individuals are working, paying taxes, raising families and contributing every day to the life of our City. Maintaining that stability matters because unnecessary disruption creates uncertainty that serves no one.”
Nevertheless, the Trump administration announced that it would revoke legal status from the Haitian community. Revoking their credentials would destroy their ability to work, protect their families, and drive economic growth in a community that badly needed it.
They’d also be easy to target, given the forms and biometric data recorded in DHS and USCIS systems.
At the time I gave this talk, the story was not over:
- The US House of Representatives – including the Republican representative from Springfield Ohio – passed a bill extending Temporary Protective Status for Haitians. It will not pass the Senate and would almost certainly be vetoed if it did.
- Human rights organizations immediately challenged the decision in court. We were awaiting a decision from the Supreme Court.
Yesterday, June 25 2026, the Supreme Court ruled that there is no Judicial oversight for the Executive decision to prematurely terminate TPS for the Haitian (and Syrian) community. The definition of who is legal may now change on a dime.
These ongoing legal and legislative battles have slowed down the changes in legal status for the Haitian community. But this wasn’t the case for others – and it will not be the case for future communities targeted, given the decision handed down yesterday.
Targeting Venezuelans
In February of last year, the president invoked a rare wartime power to declare that a South American gang was invading the United States. The administration moved swiftly to deport 283 men to a notorious Terrorist Confinement Center in El Salvador called CECOT.
Men like the make-up artist Andry Hernandez Romero were arrested as gang members by virtue of their clothes and tattoos, deported without due process, and subjected to mental, physical, and sexual abuse.
The administration kept the identities of these detainees secret, but time & subsequent reporting has revealed that 75% had no criminal records whatsoever. Yet, with their credentials revoked, they were deported, imprisoned, and tortured.
Only the Beginning
The administration has revoked the credentials of DACA recipients, who entered illegally as children and have known no other home.
It has revoked the credentials of political dissidents who voiced their beliefs about what is happening in Gaza.
Using data recorded in identity systems, states have started revoking the credentials of people who identify as trans.
On his first day in office, Trump attempted to end birthright citizenship by executive order. If the supreme court allows this, how far can this go?
Status is being revoked digitally and, before they even know it has happened, people are showing up as targets on the phones of federal agents. People learn that they have gone from protected to targeted only when they are surrounded and arrested by ICE.
First, they came for the homeless.
The Haitians.
The Venezuelans.
The DACA.
The dissidents.
The trans.
The US citizens who are children of immigrants. But I did not speak out…
My credentials had not been revoked. Yet
Imagine a world where we have our government issued identities on our phones: our legal status is bound to our faces and fingertips, and to our devices. Carriers know where we are at all times. Companies are increasingly asking for verifications using those credentials – they need to in order to prevent fraud and protect children.
Imagine these companies – or your wallet provider comply with government’s subpoenas – it IS national security after all. Or maybe your wallet is issued by the government itself.
Now imagine your legal status is revoked: maybe you’re an immigrant; maybe you held the wrong sign at a protest; maybe they don’t like the way you dress.
How long before you’re packed onto a plane, your head is shaved, and you’re sent to CECOT. Or South Sudan. Or Libya.
Friends, are we building the trains and the railways of 1930s Europe? Of course, we don’t blame trains. Trains are good. We need trains. We need identity systems and the credentials derived from them to manifest our rights, protect our society from malfeasance.
But we also need legal protections to prevent their weaponization. Part 2 will explore the law and its relevance in these United States.
