US immigration agency explores data loophole to obtain information on deportation targets

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

66% : Though anyone can sign up for Vine, sharing that information with Appriss means that Colorado law enforcement may also be sharing it with the company's other clients, including Ice.
62% :"Ice is evolving really rapidly," Mann said.
60% : Before Colorado passed its version of a sanctuary law in 2019, local law enforcement regularly shared information like probation schedules with Ice, or granted requests to hold migrants the federal agency was interested in.
59% :Four months later, Ice paid for access to Justice Intelligence, a database offered as an add-on service by several platforms including Lexis Nexis and run by Appriss, a company owned by credit bureau Equifax.
58% : US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) has contracted with private data brokers to get around some areas' sanctuary laws, documents showOver the last decade, a growing number of American cities and states have restricted the information local law enforcement departments can exchange with immigration authorities.
57% : But Ice found new sources of information.
57% : In February 2021, Ice agreed to pay Lexis Nexis, the company that offers database services to law librarians, journalists and others, more than $17m to access its real-time "virtual crime" platform Accurint, the documents show.
57% :Data brokers are part of a broader ecosystem of companies hoovering up consumer data from a variety of sources and selling or sharing it with clients, including law enforcement.
56% : But many of the databases Ice has acquired access to are national in scope, the documents show.
56% : Its contracts permit its channel partners to deliver solutions that may be used for law enforcement purposes in accordance with state and federal regulations," she continued.
55% : But new documents reveal that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) has tapped a network of private technology companies to skirt such sanctuary policies, facilitating access to "real time" information about incarcerations and jail bookings, which enables them to pick up immigrants targeted for deportation.
55% : The report focuses on Colorado, where a sanctuary policy has limited cooperation between local agencies and Ice since 2019.
55% : Even when localities refuse to execute detainers, LexisNexis's program, Justice Intelligence, allows Ice to obtain the necessary data to bypass local policies," it continues.
54% : The spirit of them is to protect our communities and they need to evolve to address the ways that enforcement is evolving.""These contracts with data brokers completely erode any sort of protections you can have against search and seizure," said Jacinta Gonzalez, the field director for Latinx advocacy group Mijente.
53% :Getting picked up by Ice in the middle of probation appointments, for example, was not uncommon.
53% : Lexis Nexis referred to a FAQ about its work with Ice.
53% : "Ice has published documents that explicitly confirm that they use data brokers to get around sanctuary policies and law," the resolution reads.
52% : Accurint, according to the company's website, "brings together disconnected data from over 10,000 different sources, including police agencies nationwide and public records" to give law enforcement a "comprehensive view of people's identities".
52% : That ecosystem has privatized the mechanisms law enforcement typically use to obtain information on individuals, allowing agencies like Ice to circumvent traditional avenues of information gathering for which it typically would have to show probable cause.
50% : The Justice Intelligence deal would cost Ice an additional $4.8m .
50% : "Due to policy or legislative changes, [Ice Enforcement and Removals Office] has experienced an increase in the number of law enforcement agencies and state or local governments that do not share information about real time incarceration of foreign-born nationals with ICE.""Therefore, it is critical to have access to Justice Intelligence.
50% : "If they know that the consequence of them selling information to Ice is some of the stories that you're hearing then they should reconsider their practices and those contracts," Gonzalez said.
49% : "Insights does not contract directly with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
48% : The documents, which were obtained by a group of immigrant advocacy groups including Mijente, Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, and American Friends Services Committee and reviewed by the Guardian, show that in lieu of law enforcement cooperation in jurisdictions with sanctuary policies, Ice has turned to Lexis Nexis and Equifax, data brokers that collect, access and then sell personal and criminal justice information.
47% : Although the state still allowed law enforcement to share jail booking and release information with the agency, it barred local departments from complying with Ice's detainer requests.
47% :Colorado's state sanctuary policies don't prohibit companies from sharing incarceration information with Ice, but the sanctuary ordinance of Denver, Colorado's state capitol, prohibits the city from entering into "any contractual agreement that would commit or require any city officer or employee to directly or indirectly assist in the enforcement of federal immigration laws."
46% : Maria does not know how Ice obtained her probation information.
46% : "We have no way of knowing what Ice does in any aspect of its operations and how it might use this or any other system," Ray said.
46% : "The idea that there would have to be an investigation and probable cause that would lead to getting a warrant is just totally thrown out the window when Ice can use private companies to come up with information just for investigative purposes, and then arrest and deport someone."Companies like LexisNexis should "stop pretending to be just research companies or publications or whatever it is that they kind of pretend to be," said Gonzalez.
45% : Maria, an immigrant from Honduras who said she traveled to the US to escape the dangers of a local gang, said she was detained by Ice during her first appointment with her probation officer.
44% : She spent eight months in a detention center, she said, during which she applied for asylum.
43% : In Cook county, Illinois, where in 2015 the governor instructed state agencies not to cooperate with Ice the contract for Appriss prompted county commissioner Alma E Anayaa to propose a resolution earlier this month to investigate Ice's relationship with data brokers.
42% : But instead, she was detained by Ice.
42% : Equifax spokesperson Kate Walker said the company does not directly contract with Ice.
41% :Ice argued in the documents it needs Appriss' data because law enforcement agencies around the country won't give it to them.
40% : Bill Ray, a spokesperson for the county sheriffs of Colorado (CSOC), which manages Vine, said there was no way of knowing how Ice used Appriss.
39% : Ice referred questions about its contract with Lexis Nexis to Lexis Nexis.
36% : But in 2019, three years after her deportation, Colorado explicitly prohibited local law enforcement agencies from sharing probation information with Ice.

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