Rights groups push ICE to end contract with LexisNexis
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By
Natalie Alms
The groups argue that the contractor-supplied data allows the Immigration and Customs Enforcement to obtain information that might ordinarily require a warrant – or be restricted by state and local government with "sanctuary" statutes protecting undocumented Americans.
Human rights groups are calling on the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, not to renew a data contract with LexisNexis.
"We urge DHS to cancel ICE's contract with LexisNexis and stop ICE from using data brokers to circumvent local laws, erode civil rights and civil liberties, and conduct mass surveillance to fuel raids and deportation," they wrote to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in a Feb. 23 letter.
Up for renewal on Tuesday, the 2021 contract could run through February 2026 with a spending ceiling of $22.1 million.
The group, led by Mijente, a Latinx rights organization, and Just Futures Law, immigrant advocacy organization, also includes the Center on Privacy and Technology at Georgetown Law, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, or EPIC, and the Project on Government Oversight.
The organizations say that ICE's use of LexisNexis gives a "loophole" for the agency "to access enormous troves of personal and sensitive data that the agency may otherwise need a warrant to obtain" and also allows the agency to get around state and local sanctuary laws designed to protect undocumented immigrants.
An ICE spokesperson told FCW that "the contract complies with all laws, policies, and regulations that govern data collection, while appropriately respecting civil liberties and privacy interests," but did say whether ICE plans to renew the contract.
"This contract provides an investigative tool that allows the agency to manage information that assists with law enforcement investigations, to include national security and public safety cases, narcotics smuggling, transnational gang activity, child exploitation, human smuggling and trafficking, illegal exports of controlled technology and weapons, money laundering, financial fraud, cybercrime, and intellectual property theft," the spokesperson said.
A LexisNexis web page about its work with ICE states that "under the Biden Administration policies, [ICE] does not use the technology to track individuals that may have committed minor offenses. It is strictly used for identifying individuals with serious criminal backgrounds."
Just Futures Law advocates have previously stated that they remain skeptical about these assurances given the scope of the data and the scale of its use within ICE – records obtained by Just Futures in 2022 and shared with the Intercept indicate that ICE agents searched the database over 1.2 million times in a seven-month period in 2021.
Mijente and Just Futures Law are also part of a group that filed a lawsuit against LexisNexis in Cook County, Illinois last year, and these advocacy groups aren't the only ones with concerns about LexisNexis and other data brokers. Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) asked ICE for more information last fall and other House Democrats have also previously pushed for briefings and documents on data broker companies.