Power Grab/Fire anyone who can stop him
ICE signs a 5-year, $125 million Thomson Reuters contract to “continuously monitor” up to 1 million people, with voter-fraud investigation listed as an approved use
CLEAR pulls commercial records into a profile of a person with no warrant required. ICE received one offer.
What happened
On September 17, 2026, ICE signed a five-year blanket purchase agreement with Thomson Reuters Special Services with a $125 million ceiling. The performance period runs September 30, 2026 to September 29, 2031, for “data analytic support services.” One offer was received.
The service is to “continuously monitor” up to 1 million individuals and flag “potentially criminal and fraudulent behavior before crime and fraud can materialize.” The CLEAR-based product pulls credit headers, utility records, phone data and license-plate scans into a profile of a person, with no warrant required.
Procurement documents first reported by 404 Media in July list voter-fraud investigations as an approved use for the first time. ICE had announced a sole-source award in July, withdrawn it in August after “industry feedback,” and reposted the requirement.
Who benefited
Thomson Reuters kept its largest ICE contract, and ICE gets a surveillance tool whose stated purposes now include elections. The data is purchased rather than subpoenaed.
Who wanted something
Homeland Security Investigations was already holding 99 million voter records and needed a system to run them against. ICE also forecast a $2–5 million contract to buy voter files from all 50 states, using DHS “authorization letters” to get past state limits on commercial use. No award had been recorded as of October 8.
Who lost out
Up to 1 million people will be continuously monitored by a federal agency on the strength of a contract, without a judge involved. Voters’ participation in elections is now an input to an immigration-enforcement analytics system.
Why it matters
This is the first ICE procurement to name elections as a surveillance target, and it runs through 2031. The earlier record had only ICE’s request to buy voter files. This is money committed, with “voter fraud” in the contract’s permitted uses.