Data distribution company LexisNexis provides US Immigration and Customs Enforcement with (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) tools to target people who they may commit a crime – before it actually happened, according to a contract published by The Intercept.
LexisNexis then allows ICE to track the movements of alleged criminals.
A draft of the contract provides a rare glimpse into the controversial $16,8 million deal between LexisNexis and ICE, a federal law enforcement agency whose surveillance and raids on immigrant communities are widely criticized as brutal, unconstitutional and inhumane.
"The purpose of this program is mass surveillance," said Julie Mao, an attorney and co-founder of Just Futures Law, which is suing LexisNexis for illegally buying and selling personal data.
Julie Mao told The Intercept that the contract document is "an admission and indication that ICE aims to track people who have committed no crime without any criminal warrant without any evidence."
Although the company had declined to answer any questions about exactly what data it is selling to ICE or for what purpose, the draft contract describes the LexisNexis software not only as a vast repository of personal data, but also as a sophisticated analytical tool that is supposed to that it detects suspicious activities of immigrants.
The document, a “statement of work performance” made by LexisNexis as part of its contract with ICE, was obtained by reporter Asher Stockler through a public records request and shared with The Intercept.
LexisNexis Risk Solutions, a subsidiary of parent company LexisNexis, signed the contract with ICE, which operates under the auspices of the Department of Homeland Security, in 2021.
The document reveals that more than 11.000 ICE officials are using LexisNexis software as of 2021.
"This includes supporting all aspects of ICE's enforcement, lead-finding and criminal analysis activities," the document states. In practice, this means that ICE uses software to "automate" the hunt for people.
It's not clear how this data can be linked to immigration violations or any criminal activity, but the contract's use of the term “automation” indicates that ICE is to some extent allowing computers to make subsequent inferences about some human activity.
The contract specifically states that LexisNexis' analysis includes "detecting potentially criminal and fraudulent behavior before the crime and fraud takes place."
In the end, these supposed "Conspiracy Theories" were not so much Theories....
From the supposed "Danger" in 2019 and beyond, day by day we see that all the "conspiracy theories" are becoming reality..
Surviving thus all those "DREADED"... ... who said that a very dystopian time is coming for people, and that FREEDOM and DEMOCRACY will now disappear...