Agents of the Office of Immigration and Aduanas (ICE) use a private database based in Toronto, Canada, which contains millions of phone records, water, electricity and other public services to track and prosecute law enforcement of immigration, according to revelations of public documents submitted by investigators from the faculty of the University of Georgetown and which were shared with the diary The Washington Post .
The periodical says that the use of the private data base by ICE “is another example of how federal agencies exploited commercial sources to gain access to information that is not authorized to be retrieved by itself”.
It is also stated that vigilance efforts in the real world “are being stimulated by information that the people have no hope that they will be able to handle the forces of the order”, as the account of cable, gas or electric energy service.
What happened
According to the investigation of the University of Georgetown, the data base on which the ICE agents have accessed the CLEAR number and includes more than 400 million numbers, directories and service registers for more than 80 companies. Public services that cover all the basic aspects of modern life ”, including, in addition to electric power, gas and cable,“ mobile water, telephone and internet services ”.
In fact, documents have been revealed that include a database of “thousands of thousands of records relating to employees, living, credit information, criminal records and vehicle records of public service companies in 50 states.” , the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands of the United States ”.
The report adds that the information contained in CLEAR is updated in the diary, which means that it includes a recent review of a new subscription to a public service “could reflect on an individual search” in accordance with ICE’s search parameters.
Details of CLEAR
The CLEAR data base is run by the Thomson Reuters data and media conglomerate, which sells legal research software solutions to a wide range of public companies and agencies, the Post reports.
The company has documented its public service dates from the Equifax credit information giant.
The Thomson Reuters company, located in Toronto, Canada, is also the owner of the Reuters International News Service, as well as other important subscription data bases, including Westlaw.
The Washington Post did not provide Thomson Reuters with a complete list of clients for CLEAR, and the documentation and marketing of documents for use by the police and Detroit, a cooperative in California and an investigator of fraud and electricity Medio Oeste de Estados Unidos.
The federal land registry records that the Justice, DHS and Defense departments are located between the federal agencies with contracts for the use of data.
Anterior denial
In February 2020 the diary The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) denounces that federal agencies are using cellular telephone data to apply the immigration law in the wake of Donald Trump’s governing policy ‘migration policy’.
The periodic table says that the herramia has been required through the purchase of access to a commercial data base that shows and maps the movements of millions of cellular telephones. And added that the information “is used for the implementation of the immigration law and frontier security”, agrees with the testimony of individuals familiar with the topic and who will keep their numbers in the anonymous.
“The data of the application (of the infringers of the immigration law) are obtained by applications of communal cellular telephones, including games, climate and electronic commerce for the numbers the user has obtained permission to register the communication.
The WSJ also said that it also had access to documents explaining the scope of the law on the Department of National Security (DHS).
Deportation policy
In January 2018, the National Immigration Law Center (NILC) announced that ICE establishment using data and interchange data bases with other federal and private dependencies for deporting immigrants, a questionable procedure that violates the law to share information that was collected for fines distinctly different.
NILC says that defenders of the rights of the institution of immigrants “particularly interested in understanding how ICE interacts with the state and local police agencies and with the state departments of motor vehicles (DMV), including that which includes the contact with the the DMV policy applies to immigrants and their families in danger of deportation ”.
In September 2017, the NILC announced the existence of a “database of data bases and exchanges between federal, state and local agencies that facilitate the application of the immigration law”.
The information describes a set of data bases, information exchange and information relations systems that do not always require collaboration or formal agreements between federal and state agencies to process this type of exchange.
Researchers at the University of Georgetown say that the use of private data bases for the deportation of minors confuses the vulnerable individuals and the migrant politicians of the governing bodies in turn.
“It is necessary to draw a line in the defense of the basic dignity of the people. And when the deportation method was put on hold with the ability to access basic services, that line was crossing, ”said Nina Wang, Georgetown’s Center for Citizens’ Center.
“It’s a massive transition to the confidence of the people”, aggregated. “When you register to receive electricity, it is not hoped that immigration agents will come to your door”.
