ICE Awards $125 Million Contract to Thomson Reuters for Voter and Immigration Fraud Investigations
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has entered into a $125 million contract with Thomson Reuters to obtain access to personal data, according to a new procurement record.
The contract outlines that ICE seeks comprehensive personal information including names, Social Security numbers, and ethnicity data. The stated purpose of accessing this information is to investigate what the agency describes as "voters fraud" as well as immigration fraud.
The large-scale data procurement has raised concerns among privacy advocates who worry about the scope of government surveillance and the potential for such databases to be used beyond their stated purposes. Access to detailed personal identifiers combined with ethnic data points creates a comprehensive profile that could be used for broad investigative purposes.
This contract represents one of the larger recent government data procurement agreements with a private data broker. Thomson Reuters, through its various data subsidiaries, maintains extensive databases of personal information compiled from public records, commercial sources, and other data providers.
The use of voter fraud as a justification for expanded data collection has drawn particular scrutiny, as previous studies and government investigations have found that actual voter fraud in the United States is extremely rare. Critics argue that using voter fraud investigations as a rationale for accessing detailed personal data may be disproportionate to any demonstrated need.