Sophia Barba 04/07/2021
On April 2, 2021, The Intercept published a damning article revealing that the oft-used legal research giant, LexisNexis, has contracted with ICE to provide the agency access to its massive data bank.
According to Sam Biddle from The Intercept, “[LexisNexis] also caters to the immensely lucrative ‘risk’ industry, providing, it says, 10,000 different data points on hundreds of millions of people to companies like financial institutions and insurance companies who want to, say, flag individuals with a history of fraud. LexisNexis Risk Solutions is also marketed to law enforcement agencies, offering ‘advanced analytics to generate quality investigative leads, produce actionable intelligence and drive informed decisions’ — in other words, to find and arrest people.”
The unholy marriage between the research tool-turned-Palantir and ICE is not a new development. Several years ago, LexisNexis had already begun courting ICE with similar data-exchange deals along with the other legal research titan, WestLaw. Prior talks had prompted members of the legal community to express obvious displeasure for the ethical dilemma that was being forced upon them. Most notably, Sarah Lamdan, professor and librarian at CUNY School of Law, published an authoritative article in the N.Y.U. Review of Law & Social Change that provided insight into the developing relationship between ICE and both legal research companies. This article came at the cusp of what is now an incredibly normalized occurrence. You know, a private company that offers an essential tool branches out into the lucrative data surveillance industry, you’ve probably seen it before.
It is impossible for most people to hear about these partnerships without getting a bad taste in their mouth. Unfortunately, our society’s dependence on tech has left us largely unable to divest or otherwise eschew these tools with much success. This dependence is the reason many of these companies don’t even try to hide how incestuous their relationships to government agencies like ICE really are.
The Intercept article should be read and taken as a clarion call to action for immigration advocates. The playing field is being skewed in favor of an omniscient government, leaving attorneys and those they represent more eggshells to avoid as they tread lightly around unseen information landmines. The façade of neutrality touted by Big Data and Big Tech is being torn down by the very companies who worked so hard to create it. What’s worse, the tech industry itself is the outfit that created the narrative that the internet, and all that comes with it, is a strictly neutral medium existing between the two groups allegedly existing in perpetual struggle: the masses and the government. (Don’t believe me? Don’t worry, someone already wrote an article about it here) This news should encourage more fervent use of alternative channels of informational support among those who represent non-citizens. Likewise, more collaborative efforts should also be made to place organized pressure on brazen unions such as that of LexisNexis and ICE. As it stands, it may even be advisable for many of us in the legal community to return to antiquated means of record-keeping and information-gathering if one can help it. After all, just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean they aren’t after you!
Some more interesting reading, some already linked above:
LEXISNEXIS TO PROVIDE GIANT DATABASE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION TO ICE, The Intercept
LAWYERS AND SCHOLARS TO LEXISNEXIS, THOMSON REUTERS: STOP HELPING ICE DEPORT PEOPLE, The Intercept
LexisNexis Page Advertising its ‘Risk Solution’ Services
How ICE Picks Its Targets in the Surveillance Age, The New York Times Magazine
Tech companies quietly work with ICE as border crisis persists, NBC News