U.S. Plans to Pay Thomson Reuters $125 million to Help Track 'Voter Fraud'-report

The U.S. government plans to pay Thomson Reuters $125 million to access personal data that will help it investigate voting and immigration fraud, according to the independent website 404 media.

The report on 404 Media https://www.404media.co/ice-to-pay-thomson-reuters-125-million-to-find-voter-fraud/ quotes a procurement record it has seen as saying that the Department of Homeland Security wants access to Thomson Reuters databases that include names, addresses, social security numbers, ethnicity, social media posts and geolocation information.

These would be used to help ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency) with its investigations.

In a television address last week President Donald Trump alleged the U.S. voting system was insecure and alleged China meddled in the 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden. Democrats said he was trying to pre-emptively undermine the results of November’s midterm elections.

Trump’s Republican Party could lose control of one or both houses of Congress in the elections amid the president’s falling popularity because of the rising cost of living and the Iran war.

404 Media quoted the procurement document as saying: “Due to ICE’s re-prioritized mission, there is need for this data to be readily accessible to support the presidential mandate of the identification of Voters Fraud, Immigration Fraud and National Security.”

Thomson Reuters Special Services (TRSS), a subsidiary which sells access to this kind of data to companies and governments in a product called CLEAR, is completely separate from Reuters News Agency within the Thomson umbrella organisation.  

The report said the proposal would pay Thomson Reuters $25 million a year over five years.

Thomson Reuters told 404 media when asked about the report: “We prohibit the use of CLEAR for the purpose of identifying and locating non-criminal immigrants or undocumented individuals with the intention of deportation solely on the basis of the individual’s immigration status. We take this restriction seriously and we enforce it.”

It added that the company provided technology and services to support investigations into national security and public safety including child exploitation, human trafficking, narcotics and weapons trafficking and fraud or financial crime.

The contract with ICE has been heavily criticised both in the pages of The Baron and by staff at Thomson Reuters.

The then head of the Reuters Trustees, Kim Williams, told the Reuters Society in 2018 that the contract did not undermine the editorial independence of Reuters.  https://www.thebaron.info/news/article/2018/06/19/ice-contract-does-no-harm-to-reuters-principles-trustees

In March this year, more than 200 Thomson Reuters employees in the U.S. state of Minnesota called on the company not to renew the contract with ICE, according to U.S. news reports.https://www.thebaron.info/news/article/2026/03/13/thomson-reuters-us-staff-urge-company-to-end-immigration-enforcement-contract   

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