ICE Is Using Data Broker Tools to ‘Identify Unaccompanied Minors’ and ‘Fraud’
Wired · LC · trust 61/100
Photograph: Getty Images Comment Loader Save Story Save this story Comment Loader Save Story Save this story Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) intends to renew its contract with a subsidiary of data broker giant Thomson Reuters at a rate of up to $25 million per year for up to five years in order to accommodate an urgent, “multiplied” demand for data that can identify “unaccompanied minors” as well as anyone involved with “any type of fraud of government funds,” according to a document published in a federal contract register on Tuesday.
“Due to ICE’s re-prioritized mission,” the document reads, “there is a need for the data to be readily accessible to support the presidential mandate of the identification of Voters fraud, Immigration Fraud, and National Security.”
The document does not explain why ICE would need to identify unaccompanied minors, which is typically the remit of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), or how Thomson Reuters’ data would be used to combat voter fraud or immigration fraud. When reached for comment, Thomson Reuters spokesperson Kat Hanley tells WIRED that its identification work for ICE may include “vetting the sponsors of children entering the country” to ensure the children’s “welfare and safety.”
The annual payment of $25 million marks a dramatic increase in the value of Thomson Reuters’ work with ICE. The previous equivalent contract was worth $24 million total over a five-year period.
Though ICE has been buying data from Thomson Reuters since 2008 , the contract justification indicates that the Trump administration hopes to expand the scope of how Thomson Reuters data is used by federal immigration officials. It is yet another indicator of the ever-expanding reach of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) claims in the document that Thomson Reuters Special Services (TRSS) is “the only contractor” that can provide “continuous monitoring of up to one million individuals and entities” with “event-driven monitoring,” “real-time alerts,” and “model-based risk scoring.” The document did not provide examples of said events or risks.
The contract would maintain ICE’s access to several proprietary Thomson Reuters databases, the document says. One of these databases is the Consolidated Lead Evaluation and Reporting (CLEAR), which provides access to public records and “license plate reader data,” which is sourced from on-road surveillance cameras. Since 2017 , Thomson Reuters has sourced this data from Vigilant Solutions, an automated license-plate-reader company that is now owned by Motorola.
Another Thomson Reuters database named in the document is the Continuous Alerting Batch Solution (CABS), which ICE says pulls records about individuals who were recently incarcerated or came into contact with law enforcement, including “real-time alerting on last known location data.”
The contract would also maintain ICE’s access to Westlaw, Thomson Reuters’ court records database. ICE will also have access to Real Time Incarceration and Arrest Records (RTIA and Thomson Reuters Special Services Entity Authority (TEA), which feeds into a “risk intelligence” platform called RAPID, according to Thomson Reuters’ website.
The software bundle that Thomson Reuters sells to ICE, the document claims, enables the agency to conduct “continuous monitoring,” “court document retrieval,” “risk assessments,” and “academic risk flagging.” The document does not explain what constitutes an academic risk.
Representatives for ICE, DHS, and HHS did not respond to requests for comment. A White House spokesperson referred WIRED to DHS and ICE.
Unaccompanied minors, children who arrive in the US alone, are not the purview of ICE. Care for these children is overseen by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), which is under the umbrella of HHS and operates independently from immigration enforcement. However, in February last year, ICE agents were granted further access to the database that ORR uses to track unaccompanied minors.
A government employee with knowledge of immigration processes says that the Thomson Reuters proprietary databases will now be used by DHS agents, including ICE, to background-check potential sponsors for unaccompanied minors. They spoke to WIRED on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.
A sponsor is generally a parent or other adult family member who is responsible for providing food, shelter, and medical care for the minor as they await immigration proceedings. The sponsor must also agree to make sure the child attends all necessary immigration appointments and court proceedings. But this level of DHS involvement is a departure from how the process has historically worked.
“With every passing day, it becomes more difficult to discern where ORR ends and ICE begins,” says Jason Boyd, vice president of federal policy at Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), a legal services organization that works with unaccompanied minors.
Historically, ORR staff would conduct background checks on sponsors, with a specific eye toward indicators that could put a child in jeopardy, such as whether a sponsor appears on registered sex offender lists, had a history of child abuse and neglect, or appeared in state criminal databases. Members of DHS were not involved in this process. But last year, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), which oversees ORR, released new guidance requiring that all sponsors and other adult members of their households be fingerprinted and stipulating that only “unexpired and legible photocopies of identification documents” would be accepted. All sponsors and "alternate caregivers” are also now required to have a Social Security number or individual tax identification number, a challenge for “mixed-status” families where some members may be undocumented but others are not.
Boyd says these increased requirements and the risk for…
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