Lawmakers held a first-of-its-kind hearing to determine whether or not ICE's purchasing of data potentially sidesteps local sanctuary city laws.
“This is a massive loophole in hard-fought sanctuary laws nationwide,” Mijente’s national organizer Cinthya Rodriguez said during the hearing. “We’ve seen time and again how government agencies, stymied by legislation or the constitution itself, attempt to obtain data through third parties like LexisNexis. We know ICE is doing it, we’ve shown this in our research. Now, we need answers about how it’s happening in Chicago.
“The 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 ICE spokesperson said.
The supposed data in question is vast. Experts testifying during the hearing spoke in depth on ICE’s access to, “real-time incarceration data,” siphoned up from jails and repackaged for purchase by LexisNexis. That can reportedly include data from courthouses and traffic ticking as well as rental and utility data. In effect, the experts warned ICE may have access to individuals’ citizenship status, addresses, phone numbers, social security numbers, and much more.
One speaker, who self-identified as an immigrant, said she had viewed roughly 43 pages of data ICE had collected on her which she described as, “extremely disturbing.” That allegedly included the individuals’ past and present address, mortgage, and social security number, as well as the names of 27 different people living in that individual’s apartment building.
Local officials representing the county’s jail and sheriff’s office acknowledged they used LexisNexis but said they were unaware of sharing any data with the brokers that would violate local laws. Repeatedly, officials claimed the data provided to LexisThe Cook County hearing comes amid growing pressure from activists and lawmakers for LexisNexis to terminate its contracts with ICE.
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