Quiz

Question 7

Were you born in the US?

Who buy birth certificate info for people born in the US

If you were born in the U.S., your birth certificate is probably filed at a state department of health and vital statistics. Commercial data brokersOpens in new tab buy and resell birth certificate information that they can access. Some states consider birth certificates to be public records; others don’t. States may have their own idiosyncratic systems for recording births. If you were born in California, for instance, you were issued a Certificate of Live Birth. According to court testimony, this is a public record that ICE has access to (but doesn’t always check).

It may be surprising to learn that being born in the U.S. does not protect against being detained by ICE — nor is being a citizen or permanent resident. A database can mistakenly show that you were born outside the US (as happened to plaintiff Gerardo Gonzalez of Gonzalez v. ICE), and DHS databases commonly don't include your birth or naturalization records. You might be flagged by DHS and other law enforcement's data criminalization processes as possibly deportable.

Some data systems that ICE consults include CIS (Central Index System)Opens in new tab, CLAIMS 3 & 4Opens in new tab, and Person Centric Query Service (PCQS)Opens in new tab.

To see what databases would track you if your answer had been no, click the no button.

If you entered the US on a visa

If you were not born in the U.S. and you entered on a visa or are a naturalized citizen, you have records in various DHS databases like: TECS/ICMOpens in new tab, CISOpens in new tab, ADISOpens in new tab, SEVISOpens in new tab, CLAIMS 3 & 4Opens in new tab, and PCQSOpens in new tab.

If you are arrested and booked for any non-immigration offense, automated database cross-checking between databases like NCICOpens in new tab, NletsOpens in new tab, ACRIMeOpens in new tab, NGIOpens in new tab and IDENT/HARTOpens in new tab can flag your records for ICE. ICE can ask the jail to hold you, or to notify them about your release.

To see what databases would track you if your answer had been yes, click the yes button.

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Of the 13 monsters in this quiz, it looks like your data may be tracked by the following:

But there may be other smaller surveillance databases not covered in the quiz.

You may be asking yourself "What can we do?".

What now?

To learn more, check out the full From Data Criminalization to Prison Abolition Report.

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More about this quiz

There is no single database that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) can consult to find a list of everyone they are able to deport.

As a workaround, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) cross-checks many existing datasets. They use information from international visitors, visa holders, and arrest and conviction records. These datasets are not always reliable  at determining legal status. They are also deeply flawed, racist, and xenophobic.

More and more, DHS buys data from corporations to supplement their own databases. They can buy archives of location history, face and voice recognition files, and iris scans. Artificial intelligence tools use this data to predict behavior and infer relationships between people, places, and objects (like vehicles).

We spent months researching databases and data-sharing. But contractors and technologies change all the time, and many government data systems are shrouded in secrecy. We do not claim that the databases listed here make up a complete list, nor is it possible to make that list. Rather, we hope that this tool hints at the tangled and complex web of data extraction and criminalization.

The fight against migrant exploitation, racist border securitization, and deportation is a fight against data criminalization. It is a fight for collective self-determination and data liberation. Read more in our full report.