Tech Force touts 200 hires

Workers hired under the Trump administration’s Tech Force program are gradually making their way into the government. About 200 people have been hired so far, and onboarding began over the past couple of weeks, Tech Force Director Kevin Hennecken told an audience gathered in a meeting room within the U.S. Capitol Visitor’s Center on Wednesday. He estimated about 10 people have been onboarded and expects that to be over 100 next month. The goal, he said, is to have about 300 to 500 workers by the end of summer. “Going from hiring to onboarding in the government can take a little bit of time,” Hennecken said. “We’re moving as fast as we can.”

Immigration and Customs Enforcement is spending more than five times what it did last year on a single vendor’s identity verification technology, according to procurement documents published this month. ICE’s contract with BI2 Technologies from Sept. 24, 2025 to Sept. 23, 2026 totaled $4.6 million, while the new award, set to run from June 1, 2026 to May 31, 2027, surpasses the $25 million mark. The Massachusetts-based, venture capital-backed vendor will supply ICE agents with an additional batch of 1,570 iris-scanning devices. The handheld devices are wireless and connect to BI2 Technologies’ Inmate Identification and Recognition System, which provides access to 5 million-plus booking records, including arrest and incarceration data from 47 states.

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