The FBI plays a role in a controversial, nationwide immigration-control program known as Secure Communities through which a Department of Homeland Security agency identifies foreign nationals booked at local jails, according to immigrant-rights activists who obtained internal documents from the Obama administration.

An analysis of the documents by the activists suggests that the immigration-control program, which operates in Florida, is part of a broader FBI initiative to collect personal information on arrested foreign nationals and U.S. citizens. Secure Communities is overseen by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The documents released by activists are the first public indication that the FBI is involved with Secure Communities, and indicate that information collected at booking centers is being compiled for the broader data-gathering project.

The groups that released the documents, obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests, said the broader project is an FBI program dubbed Next Generation Identification, or NGI, that includes not only fingerprint matches but iris scans and facial-recognition technology.

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