In the era of surveillance, ICE steps up its game in identifying undocumented immigrants

March 10, 2021

Guest blogger: Austen Gabbard, law student, University of San Francisco

When you sign up for basic utility to have running water or electricity, you can bet the information that you provide to these companies is being stored and, in some cases, sold to the highest bidder. However, Georgetown Law researchers have uncovered that ICE officers have gained access to a private database that contains millions of phone, water, and electricity in an effort to pursue immigration violations.[1] It is common knowledge that websites like Facebook and Google collect and sell user information. In fact, in 2019, Apple apologized for allowing contractors to listen to voice recordings of Siri users. Even after this apology, Apple still retains automatically generated transcripts of the requests by the Siri grading program.[2] The Privacy Act of 1974 has guidelines and regulations that determine in what ways the government is allowed to gather information. However, because ICE uses a private database, the Privacy Act of 1974 does not protect against this type of information gathering ICE in 2017, using taxpayer money, contracted with CLEAR, a Thomas Reuters subsidiary, for a $21 million dollar contract for access to the data.[3]

In 2019 the ACLU of Northern California obtained records that showed that ICE was using an automated license plate reader from a company called Vigilant Solutions. It is reported that ICE and Vigilant are under a $6.1 million contract where ICE has access to over 5 billion data points of various location information that is collected by business, and parking lots.[4]

I assume a common argument for those who are against immigration is that undocumented immigrants can avoid their data being for purposes of immigration procedures if they just go back to where they came from. On a very base level this argument is sound because if they didn’t come to the United States, their information would not have been acquired. But it fails to see the big picture, that more than two-thirds of undocumented immigrant workers have frontline jobs, those deemed essential in the fight against COVID-19.[5] During this deadly pandemic, undocumented workers are the ones that are keeping food on our tables, and providing various essential services when Americans refuse to work because of the seriousness of COVID-19. With Biden now in office, he has a chance to stop some of the ongoing torment that undocumented immigrants face, including this surveillance capitalism that ICE is using as a weapon against them.

There may be some hope though, as more than 60 leading economists wrote to President Biden in February that argued for a pathway to citizenship for undocumented workers. They stated that “Creating a path to citizenship for millions of aspiring Americans pays dividends not only for them and their families, but for our broader communities. The COVID-19 pandemic has made plain how our public health and economic fates are inextricably tied together, and how harmful shortcomings in one part of our economy affect us all. The inverse is also true: conferring citizenship will bring expansive benefits to communities across the country, not only for the individuals directly affected, but for the larger systems—families, and the workforce—that they comprise. We hope you will consider including this as a sensible and long overdue policy intervention that can help to ensure that the country’s economic recovery is as big and equitable as it needs to be to meet the challenges we face.”[6]

We can only hope with pressure from various Senators and organizations like the ACLU, that the Biden administration will finally create an effective citizenship pathway system so these privacy issues and data collecting and surveillance can at the very least be toned down and the funding cut and used for another, more useful government program.

[1] Harwell, Drew. “ICE Investigators Used a Private Utility Database Covering Millions to Pursue Immigration Violations.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 1 Mar. 2021, www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/02/26/ice-private-utility-data/.

[2] Hern , Alex. “Apple Apologises for Allowing Workers to Listen to Siri Recordings.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 29 Aug. 2019, www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/aug/29/apple-apologises-listen-siri-recordings#:~:text=Apple%20has%20apologised%20for%20allowing,Guardian%20report%20revealing%20its%20existence.

[3] USAspending.gov, www.usaspending.gov/award/CONT_AWD_HSCEMD17F00008_7012_GS02F026DA_4732.

[4] Talla, Vasudha. “Documents Reveal ICE Using Driver Location Data From Local Police for Deportations: ACLU of Northern CA.” ACLU of Northern California, 13 Mar. 2019, www.aclunc.org/blog/documents-reveal-ice-using-driver-location-data-local-police-deportations.

[5] Ainsley, Julia. “Sixty-Nine Percent of Undocumented Immigrant Workers Have Jobs ‘Essential’ to Fighting Covid, Says Study.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 17 Dec. 2020, www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/sixty-nine-percent-undocumented-immigrant-workers-have-jobs-essential-fighting-n1251390.

[6] Appelbaum, Eileen, and Leah Boustan. “Economists-Letter-on-Legalization-and-Recovery.” Fwd.us, 11 Feb. 2021, www.fwd.us/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Economists-Letter-on-Legalization-and-Recovery.pdf.