US immigration police ICE buys immigrant data from a private broker, bypassing a court ban on access to it - 404 Media

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is purchasing information related to immigrant tax identification numbers (ITINs) from a private broker, in what may be an attempt to circumvent a court order preventing the agency from obtaining such information. Senator Ron Wyden told 404 Media about this after reviewing the procurement documents also available to journalists.

The nearly $10 million contract was awarded June 5 to Thundercat Technology LLC for “subscription ITIN data and analytics for HSI (Homeland Security Investigations) agents in fraud investigations.” What data is included in the subscription - the ITIN numbers themselves or also the names and addresses of their holders - is not specified. An ITIN is an identifier that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issues to undocumented migrants and other people who are not eligible for a Social Security number. As the publication emphasizes, undocumented immigrants pay tens of billions of dollars in taxes every year.

“Trump appears to be trying to circumvent the law and the court's decision to advance his campaign of mass deportations,” Wyden said, adding that the court had already invalidated the agreement between the IRS and the Department of Homeland Security to share ITIN data, and the contract to buy the same information from private brokers was a clear attempt to circumvent both the Tax Privacy Act and the court's decision. The agreement between the IRS and ICE, which required the IRS to share identification numbers and last known addresses of more than 1.2 million people, was reached in April 2025. It was temporarily blocked by one judge in November, declaring the practice illegal, and in February by another, pointing out that it could lead to errors in the identification of taxpayers.

404 Media writes that Thundercat Technology is a well-known contractor that often resells other companies' technology and surveillance equipment to the government. The company itself did not respond to journalists’ requests, and it is unclear whose product it can resell in this case. It is noted that buying access to data from private brokers, rather than obtaining it through a court order, has been used more than once by ICE and other departments of the Department of Homeland Security - the agency previously bought geolocation data on smartphones and access to utility data, and also used the Webloc service to spy on phones in entire areas.

Senator Wyden noted that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was preparing to close this legal loophole before the Trump administration eliminated the agency and blocked the new rule from going into effect. The next administration should close this loophole permanently, he said.

It was previously reported that ICE has accessed the ISO ClaimSearch insurance company database, which contains information on more than 1.8 billion insurance claims, including names, addresses and tax numbers, and is using it to find targets for deportation.