DHS Plans $125 Million Data Deal With Thomson Reuters for ICE
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Procurement documents reveal a massive investment in personal data to investigate what it describes as 'voters fraud' and immigration fraud.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) intends to pay $125 million to Thomson Reuters Special Services (TRSS) to provide Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with extensive personal data, as 404 Media first reported based on procurement documents it reviewed.
The deal, structured as $25 million annually over five years, grants ICE access to the CLEAR database. This data includes Social Security numbers, names, addresses, ethnicity, geolocation information, social media posts, and license plate data. 404 Media reports that the data also incorporates credit header information provided to financial institutions.
According to the procurement documents, the data is intended to support President Trump's mandate to identify "Voters Fraud, Immigration Fraud and National Security," as well as verify eligibility for benefits and schools. The documents state that TRSS is the only contractor able to provide ICE with a continuous monitoring and alert service for millions of individuals and entities of interest, and the only one able to offer access to the data in "batch."
Thomson Reuters has previously denied connecting CLEAR to ICE deportation operations. In a statement to 404 Media, the company asserted it prohibits using CLEAR to locate undocumented individuals for deportation based solely on immigration status and noted that immigration status is not a search field. However, Emma Pullman of the B.C. General Employees' Union (BCGEU), which is a minority shareholder in Thomson Reuters, told 404 Media that the company has provided inconsistent accounts of its ICE contracts and intends to seek clarity regarding the inclusion of voter fraud in this latest agreement.