AI system
- System
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U.S. Customs and Border Protection (Office of Field Operations) machine-learning model that scores vehicle border-crossing histories for suspicious patterns; not named in any source
- Model
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Not assessed
- Release
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Not assessed
- Provider
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Not assessed
- Role
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Not assessed
- Configuration
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Not assessed
- Inputs and outputs
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Not assessed
- Autonomy
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Not assessed
- Workflow
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A CBP machine-learning model scoring vehicle border-crossing histories was running on traffic at the San Ysidro Point of Entry. The model's flag reached officers in time to send the car to further (secondary) review before it left the port. Officers physically searched the car, found the 75 kilograms of narcotics and arrested the driver.
- Human oversight
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Not assessed
- Relation to AI
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The model's contribution was the referral. DHS says it identified a suspicious pattern in the car's border-crossing history and flagged it for review. Mayorkas said the anomaly was identified in 1.4 seconds. The discovery of the narcotics and the arrest were done by officers in secondary review. No source states whether the car would have been referred without the flag. The model's counterfactual contribution is thus asserted by DHS, not demonstrated. The Monitor entry also bundles Mayorkas's claim that AI age-progression imagery has recovered abducted children. That claim names no case, date, or child.
- AI contribution
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The model's contribution was the referral. DHS says it identified a suspicious pattern in the car's border-crossing history and flagged it for review. Mayorkas said the anomaly was identified in 1.4 seconds. The discovery of the narcotics and the arrest were done by officers in secondary review. No source states whether the car would have been referred without the flag. The model's counterfactual contribution is thus asserted by DHS, not demonstrated. The Monitor entry also bundles Mayorkas's claim that AI age-progression imagery has recovered abducted children. That claim names no case, date, or child.
Benefits
- Outcome identifiers
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Not assessed
- Benefit
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review found 75 kg of narcotics and the driver was arrested
- Category
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Reduced Violence
- Status
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Not assessed
- Beneficiary groups
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Society. Organizations.
- Beneficiaries
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Not assessed
- Reach
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Not assessed
- Distribution and access
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Not assessed
- Duration
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Not assessed
- Expected?
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Yes
- Costs and harms
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Not assessed
Measurement
- Studies
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Not assessed
- Study design
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Not assessed
- Measurement
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Not assessed
- Setting and sample
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Not assessed
- Measures
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review found 75 kg of narcotics and the driver was arrested
- Comparison
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Not assessed
- Results
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review found 75 kg of narcotics and the driver was arrested
- Additional value from AI
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Not assessed
- Limitations
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Not assessed
- Denominators
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Not assessed
- Materials for replication
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Not assessed
Money
- Kind of value
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Not assessed
- Amount
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Not assessed
- Currency and prices
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Not assessed
- Period and unit
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Not assessed
- Realization
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Not assessed
- Recipients and payers
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Not assessed
- Gross or net
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Not assessed
- Included costs
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Not assessed
- Comparison
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Not assessed
- Method
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Not assessed
- Return and payback
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Not assessed
People and places
- Participants
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Operator:
U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Office of Field Operations (U.S. Department of Homeland Security). - Jurisdictions
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Benefit: San Ysidro,
United States. Operator: United States. - Ownership and control
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Not assessed
- Dependencies
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Not assessed
- Cross-border connections
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Not assessed
- Geopolitical implications
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Not assessed
Follow-up
- Conditions for replication
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The crossing-history pattern the model keys on must actually distinguish smuggling loads. No source gives hit rates or false-positive rates. Officers must have the discretion and capacity to act on a flag within normal crossing processing. The seizure is documented only by DHS and the Secretary. An independent CBP release or court filing giving the date, drug and quantity has not been found.
- Replication attempts
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Not assessed
- Later findings
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DHS's March 2024 AI Roadmap restates the same seizure as an example; no later development, seizure date or drug type was found.
- Availability
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Not assessed
- Institutional decision
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Not assessed
- Grounds
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Not assessed
- Action and result
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Not assessed
- Success criterion
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Not assessed
Evidence
- Source numbers
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AIBD-0122-source-0001–0004
- Citations
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Numbered references below.
- Language
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Not assessed
- Source relationships
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Operator, Independent
- Original evidence
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Not assessed
- Access and versions
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Not assessed
- Supported findings
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Not assessed
- Evidence links
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Not assessed
- Evidence strength
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Not assessed
- Missing evidence
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Not assessed
Grades
- Assessed benefits
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Society. Organizations.
- Depth
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Society: 3. Organizations: 2.
- Reasons
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Society: DHS states that 75 kilograms of narcotics hidden in the car were found and the driver arrested. That load did not reach U.S. streets. The drug is not named in any source, so a life-saving claim is not supported. Organizations: CBP's Office of Field Operations obtained a seizure and an arrest from a flag that Mayorkas said took 1.4 seconds. DHS leads both its AI page and its 2024 AI Roadmap with the case as its example of AI in use.
- Observed or intended
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Not assessed
- Rubric
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Not assessed
- Assessor and date
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Not assessed
- Alternative assessments
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Not assessed
- Fill
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Independently reported
Entry details
- Kind
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Not assessed
- Related entries
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Not assessed
- Field
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Border security and law enforcement. Narcotics interdiction at a land port of entry.
- Purpose
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CBP's model was built to identify potentially suspicious patterns in vehicle border-crossing histories (DHS AI Roadmap 2024). It flags vehicles for secondary review at ports of entry. The San Ysidro seizure was that use, not a side effect.
- Dates
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Date basis unassessed: 2023 (precision unassessed). Updated: 21 October 2026.
- Stage
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Not assessed
- Version
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SHA-256: b3d5594ab985…
References
- Other identifiers
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oecd_aim: 2023-11-28-9430.
- Category mappings
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Not assessed
- Brief
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Not assessed
- Revisions
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4 revisions. Latest: 21 October 2026.
Sources
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Report Deployer
U.S. Department of Homeland Security (2024). Artificial Intelligence Roadmap 2024. dhs.gov (PDF).
CBP recently used the model to flag a car for secondary review, which yielded the discovery of over 75 kgs of drugs hidden in the automobile
-
News report Independent author
Giaritelli, A. (2023). Mayorkas: DHS using AI to catch fentanyl at border, track down kidnapped children. Washington Examiner.
in 1.4 seconds, we identified an anomaly of a particular truck that ended up having about 75 kilograms of narcotics in it
-
News report Independent author
Kelley, A. (2023). DHS aims to lead in defense against 'adversarial' AI. Nextgov/FCW.
AI systems are currently aiding DHS operations in border patrol efforts and combating drug trafficking and creating age progression estimations of missing children
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Press release Deployer
U.S. Department of Homeland Security (2023). Artificial Intelligence at DHS. dhs.gov (page last updated 27 November 2023; archived 1 December 2023 at web.archive.org/web/20231201224758/https://www.dhs.gov/ai).
flagged it for further review, which revealed 75 kilograms of narcotics hidden in the vehicle and led to the arrest of the driver