Small companies score big contracts to search for undocumented immigrants

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Scripps News

Posted 4:18 PM, Jan 26, 2026 and last updated 4:19 PM, Jan 26, 2026


The Trump administration has offered open-ended contracts to 13 private companies for help verifying where suspected undocumented immigrants live and work.

A Scripps News investigation found that some of the companies have no record of previously doing business with the government. Some also list post office boxes or residences as their main office addresses, raising questions about their qualifications to handle sensitive personal data and to conduct in-person surveillance of migrants.

Just before Christmas, Immigration and Customs Enforcement awarded contracts potentially worth a combined $1.2 billion for the companies to provide "skip tracing services nationwide" during the next two years, according to federal contracting records reviewed by the Scripps News investigative team. The records show that most of the companies have not yet received any payments.

The Department of Homeland Security published a document in October saying ICE had an immediate need for skip tracing, a process described as using government data, the web, and physical surveillance to confirm the location of targeted immigrants.

Read more: https://www.scrippsnews.com/investigations/ice-inc/small-companies-score-big-contracts-to-search-for-undocumented-immigrants

[AZJonnie]

1. Golly, I wonder how many of the owners of these companies are MAGAts who've pledged to contribute

some significant % of their contracts Republican politicians coffers once they start getting paid, IQ47's in particular? And how many of them have direct ties to Trumps family and inner circle? Hell if they were all 13 shell companies owned by Eric and Jared, would anyone here be the least surprised?

The reason I say they'll be contributing in the future as opposed to the past is the SCOTUS Shady Six have declared it's only ever illegal to take bribes if you get them BEFORE providing the corrupt act. If person doing the bribing pays the corrupt politician AFTER s/he does them the favor (i.e. hands them undeserved contracts worth 10's of millions), then it's never bribery and always perfectly legal.

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

12. You beat me to it, and paying off his Brown Shirts...

... eom.

[ArizonaLib]

2. Privatized thugs

Now everyone can be suspicious of each other. So a contractor gives ICE an address, and the residents get their door bashed in?

[Bengus81]

7. Yeah.. the old Fink on a Friend type of program

[MadameButterfly]

3. Imagine if the money being spent to get the immigrants out

was being spent to address the violence and economic conditions in the countries they came from.
And, to address the financial concerns of the people who feel their livelihoods (correctly or not) are threatened by immigrants.
To solve the real and imagined problems posed by immigration.
Spent on love, not hate.

[travelingthrulife]

13. It would be 1000x more efficient to simply heavily fine and imprison those US businesses

hiring undocumented immigrants if all these immigrants bother them so much. Many of them can be found at Trump's palace.

Or...we could streamline our guest worker visas to ensure they are quickly and effectively processed.

[MadameButterfly]

19. Yes, these are better solutions but

they aren't really looking for solutions. It's the problem they needed to get Trump elected. It's a way to express their anger and wield power over someone.

Meanwhile, they ignore all the reasons we actually benefit from immigrants. Many countries are experiencing population decline which is causing economic problems, and the US was one of the few nations that didn't have that problem because of it's popularity with immigrants. Until now.

[Javaman]

4. it will be interesting to watch the eventual pissing match confrontation

between whomever comes out on top from these "private firms" and ICE.

because you know it will happen

I'm thinking stuart rhodes.

[Bengus81]

5. Trump give them a list of States to ignore? Texas,Florida,Georgia,Oklahoma etc..etc...

[ClaudetteCC]

6. According to the last data I saw

The top 6 states with the highest number of ICE arrests are (in order):
Texas, Florida, Tennessee, California, New York, Arizona

[Bengus81]

8. Link to that data? Funny..somehow I've missed the video of roving gangs of ICE agents

in downtown and city streets of Dallas, San Antonio,Houston, etc,etc for the last several months. But I have seen it in BLUE States and blue cities 24/7.

[ClaudetteCC]

9. I did a search 'ice arrests by state'

and got the ai generated data.

Here is one such supporting link:
https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2025/12/11/ice-jails-update/

Here is a link showing a bit different order but TX is still top:
https://www.freedomforimmigrants.org/detention-statistics

[ClaudetteCC]

10. If there is no conflict (e.g. protests) would the media be interested?

[AverageOldGuy]

11. "Some also list post office boxes or residences as their main office addresses, "

You can bet that a trace will track them all back to a few billionaires.

[travelingthrulife]

14. Here is a task for protestors then. Find these fucking monsters.

[BradBo]

15. This is gonna get people killed.

[WmChris]

16. How many shell companies

Could be another grift funneling tax dollars to the well connected and family members of the well connected in order to cover their tracks.

[70sEraVet]

17. Perhaps sex-traffickers getting paid to do sex-trafficking?

They get lists from the government of "where suspected undocumented immigrants live and work"?

[pandr32]

18. Could be.

There is opportunity there!