Billie Little was raised in Ohio in a household of four siblings and, in the course of her childhood, 22 foster children. Her parents had a strong sense of civic duty. Hers was a religious family; they went to church three times a week. She was 7 when her father, spotting a KKK meeting in town, gathered a group to run the hooded men off. At 15, she did missionary work in Harlan County, handing out clothes and canned food. At 18, she became an itinerant laborer, waiting tables, pumping gas, painting houses, and picking apples across the West. “I worked alongside many immigrants and saw how hard they work. I respected them a lot. There was nothing but kindness.”

Along the way, she joined a commune, married, and got a college degree. She endured domestic violence, raised two children while putting herself through law school. She worked in legal publishing for 21 years at Thomson, later Thomson Reuters. In September 2025, Billie became a senior legal editor at the company. “I finally got the promotion I’d dreamed of. Finally. For the first time in my life, I didn’t have to worry about money. I started thinking about buying a house.”

In 2007, Thomson, known for its legal publications, purchased Reuters, the venerable international reporting service. The company grew into a giant data broker and media conglomerate that, besides running Reuters, sells massive quantities of personal data to private industry and government agencies.

Thomson Reuters (TR) is based in Toronto, Canada. One of its US offices, home to more than 3,600 employees, is in Eagan, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis.

In 2017, TR completed a $22 million sale that provided the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its Immigration and Customs Enforcement arm (ICE) with a range of government and public data through its investigative database, Consolidated Lead Evaluation and Reporting (CLEAR). TR markets CLEAR in these terms: “a vast collection of public and proprietary records…exclusive data feeds, quality domestic data …with source transparency and frequent updates, all in a single platform.” By March of this year, TR had $45 million in contracts and subawards with ICE. An additional contract for $7.4 million signed March 31, 2026, provides DHS with continued access to CLEAR.

CLEAR offers a supplemental data service called License Plate Recognition (LPR). This database was put to use on the streets of Minneapolis in January 2026, at the height of ICE’s Operation Metro Surge. Several thousand ICE agents, armed and masked, swarmed through the streets of the city, striving after the presidential goal of 3,000 deportations a day across the nation. A year earlier, on January 28, 2025, just a week after Trump’s inauguration, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt had maintained that all undocumented immigrants were considered “criminals” under federal law. A spokesperson for DHS referred to clearing a “backlog of undocumented persons.”

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To that end, ICE purchased a wealth of personal and sensitive information, including smartphone location, housing, and labor data.

Visuals of ICE agents scanning license plates on the streets of Minneapolis were pervasive in January. LPR enables ICE to instantly read a plate, adding it to a database of millions of records. When a license plate is photographed, it is not only a plate that is captured. People—children and bystanders—are caught in the dragnet as well as lawn signs and other data.

In the mayhem surrounding the ICE agents’ actions, US citizens Renée Good and Alex Pretti were fatally shot. To date, none of the ICE shooters has been charged with a crime. On July 13, The New York Times reported, “After months of resistance, the Justice Department has shared evidence related to…shootings by immigration agents in Minnesota with state and local investigators, the county prosecutor in Minneapolis said.”

Billie Little says, “It was outrageous. It was murder. This should not be happening in a democratic society. It is legal to observe authorities. Our right to protest is foundational.”

“I lost my mind over this,” said one TR staffer in Minneapolis, name withheld for fear of retribution. She described “disgust” and “moral injury” from what she witnessed. “Thomson Reuters is profiting off the terrorizing.”

John Boehler, policy counsel with the ACLU of Minnesota, writes, “Following, observing or reporting on federal agencies or federal activities is not a criminal activity—it’s protected First Amendment activity. To be using those cameras, to use those license plate readers, to surveil protesters has a chilling effect on First Amendment rights, and that’s what we think the goal is.”

TR’s surveillance infrastructure does not operate in isolation. Government contracting documents show how TR’s software is used in coordination with Palantir, a company cofounded by Peter Thiel. TR’s analytical tools enable ICE to consolidate and utilize millions of data points, from social-media posts to location history, in order to identify and track targets. Motorola’s investigative-data platform is also integrated with CLEAR LPR.

“[ICE] officers are now using a mobile app that lets them scan a license plate with a phone and instantly pull up a vehicle’s travel history, ownership records, and associated personal data,” wrote Anthony Kimerv on BiometricUpdate.com, November 18, 2025.

It’s an enforcement capability that has rapidly expanded through commercial surveillance vendors and is already reflected in thousands of immigration-related license plate reader (LPR) queries appearing in local police systems…. Thomson Reuters, through its CLEAR investigative platform, supplies the identity and analytic layers sitting on top of the plate data.… When an ICE agent scans a plate through the mobile interface, the system in seconds can connect movement history from Motorola’s network with identity and relational data supplied by Thomson Reuters…. an individual’s identity and associations can be cross-referenced instantly through commercial databases.

ICE purchases of data from private companies, including records of utilities, credit, and health, totaled $2.8 billion for the period 2008 to 2021, according to the Center on Privacy and Technology at Georgetown Law School.

Paromita Shah, executive director of Just Futures Law, says, “The so-called ‘data loophole’ is quite real: What ICE cannot legally obtain or refuses to obtain through traditional government investigations can simply be purchased by vendors, like Thomson Reuters, Lexis Nexis or Equifax, allowing Fourth Amendment protections to fall by the wayside. That means ICE can purchase everything and create individual dossiers in real time.”

None of this was overlooked by TR staff, many of whom are lawyers. By February, a CHAT group of 180 concerned employees had formed around the issue of the company’s involvement. Billie Little took on a leadership role in order to focus the group and take action.

She and 10 others formed the Committee to Restore Trust. In the committee’s name, she co-authored an appeal to the company in an “open letter to TR management” requesting “transparency and clear communication” regarding TR products sold to ICE. The committee submitted the letter, signed by Little and four others, on February 20. It reads in part, “It has come to our attention as employees, in part due to public scrutiny and concerns, that our company currently holds several investigative contracts with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and, relatedly, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

“To offer a clear picture of the situation caused by Operation Metro Surge: at every turn, ICE agents and the DHS agency have met citizens, documented immigrants and undocumented migrants alike, with violence and lies, breaking into homes without warrants, fatally shooting members of our community…detaining children and sending them to other states without cause or due process, detaining or harassing Native Americans, denying detainees access to legal counsel, and creating such poor conditions within detention centers that people are dying.”

In an accompanying statement the committee added: “Many Thomson Reuters workers are licensed attorneys and certified professionals bound by oaths to uphold the Constitution and protect civil liberties. We are troubled by the possibility that TR products may enable activities that violate constitutional protections—including Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure, Fifth Amendment due process rights, and Fourteenth Amendment equal protection guarantees. For professionals bound by codes of ethics, this creates an untenable conflict between employment and licensure obligations.”

Thomson Reuters responded on February 25. “We appreciate the courage it takes to raise these issues and to engage constructively on topics that are complex and emotionally charged. Brave conversations like these are an important part of who we are as a company, and we value the thoughtfulness with which they have been brought forward.” A spokesperson for TR stated, “We take employee concerns seriously and provide clear channels for colleagues to raise issues, as outline in our Code of Conduct.”

In an internal TR post, reported on March 3 by The Minnesota Star Tribune, Kevin Appold, the Minnesota-based TR vice president for projects and US public records, shared this message: “We prohibit customers from using CLEAR to identify or locate undocumented immigrants who have not committed crimes. We take these restrictions seriously and enforce them.” Appold’s post was subsequently taken down without any explanation.

“When we think about the potential human rights impacts of how our products and services are used, we listen carefully—to both external voices and those of our own employees.” a Thomson Reuters spokesperson told Isaac Phan Nay, a reporter for Vancouver’s The Tyee.

On March 20 Billie Little was fired. She was told that the termination was carried out as a result of a breach of TR’s Code of Conduct. There were no specifics and nothing in writing given to her at that time.

Little filed a whistleblower suit on April 14. She alleged that the firing was in retaliation for reporting her good-faith belief that the company’s own data practices undermined and violated state and federal law. She is represented by attorneys Maria Witt and Steven Toff. Toff writes, “Thomson Reuters knew Billie was a leader among the employees raising concerns, and they made an example of her. But this case is about more than Billie’s job. It’s about whether a corporation can silence the people inside it who are asking the hardest questions—questions about whether their company’s products are being used to circumvent constitutional protections, undermine sanctuary laws, and fundamentally enable enforcement actions that have left American citizens dead on the streets of Minneapolis.”

A TR spokesperson said, “We strongly dispute the allegations and will robustly defend the case.” In its answer to Little’s complaint, filed on June 23, the company stated: “[TR] admits that an investigation revealed that of the employees who voiced questions and concerns whether ICE was using CLEAR, Plaintiff [Little] was the only employee it determined had engaged in unauthorized disclosure of confidential information as well as misuse of its electronic systems, which led to the termination of Plaintiff’s employment.” It should be noted that confidential information is at the heart of whistleblower actions.

(Evan Jacoby suffered the same fate. A journalist under contract to Reuters, he participated in the chat about the use of TR data by ICE. He was let go on April 17. The Reuters Guild subsequently filed an unfair-labor-practice charge on his behalf with the National Labor Relations Board.)

“ICE continues to abduct people in Minneapolis,” said another TR employee who also wanted to remain anonymous. She became aware of her company’s role in facilitating ICE’s attacks on the streets and homes of Minneapolis in December 2025. The following month, she joined the ranks of “rapid responders” in diverse neighborhoods on the city’s south side, delivering groceries to families who remained inside their homes for fear of capture in the mass deportation campaign. “We’re all scared. After the shootings in January, ICE agents appeared in plain clothes but still they’re easy to spot. They’ve been focusing lately on small businesses where immigrants may be working.

“Prior to this I was proud of the company I worked for,” she said. “It can’t go unchecked.”

If Little’s firing were meant to intimidate the members of the Committee to Restore Trust, that strategy has clearly backfired—the group has grown and is continuing to publicize the use of TR technology in ICE’s campaign, and is seeking to change company policy to guard against such abuses. With $45 million in contracts at stake for TR, the conflict will only escalate further.

On June 10, 2026, the annual Thomson Reuters shareholder meeting took place in Toronto. The Thomson family owns 73 percent of TR and, with an estimated worth of $50 billion, is among the wealthiest families in Canada.

The British Columbia General Employees’ Union (BCGEU) represents more than 95,000 members across public and private sectors in British Columbia, Canada. A minority shareholder in TR, the union has sought to engage the company since 2020 on its human rights record. This includes the CLEAR platform used by government clients such as ICE. BCGEU has been closely following events surrounding Operation Metro Surge, including the firing of Billie Little.

At the shareholders meeting, BCGEU introduced a proposal calling for an independent Human Rights Impact Assessment, examining how the company’s products are used by law enforcement and immigration enforcement agencies, including when those products are integrated into broader surveillance ecosystems. The proposal was voted down.

TR has repeatedly said that CLEAR is not utilized to track immigrants. In its press release following the shareholder meeting, TR said, “They [data] are provided under strict contractual terms, subject to applicable law, and governed by strong safeguards that limit and monitor how our products and services are used. We are confident in these controls. Where potential misuse is identified, we act promptly and decisively, including suspending and/or cancelling access when warranted.”

“Thomson Reuters and others say, ‘We just provide the tools.’ That’s a convenient excuse and allows the surveillance business to make billions each year and simultaneously claim no involvement in a military-grade surveillance system being deployed on noncitizens and the people around them” says Just Futures Law’s Paromita Shah. “It’s preposterous.”

Emma Pullman heads shareholder engagement for BCGEU. “Thomson Reuters has completed two enterprise-wide human rights assessments, neither of which explicitly disclose how the company’s products are used in immigration enforcement or policing, nor any remedial actions resulting from identified risks,” she says. A TR spokesperson stated that the company “was confident the risk indicators applied in [the most recent] assessment are robust and relevant today.” As Pullman observed, however, “The most recent assessment [2025] was completed before Operation Metro Surge.”

As it stands, the company will not be carrying out a human rights impact assessment for another three years, effectively burying its involvement in the events of January 2026.

Meanwhile, “Thomson Reuters’ products and data are integral to ICE’s ability to track, detain, and carry out the largest deportation in US history,” says Pullman.

ICE actions in Minneapolis continue. Investors, residents, and company employees are still asking for information about how TR’s software and data are being used—and they aren’t likely to stop without real answers.

Billie Little is now depending on social services, hoping that a GoFundMe page will help her get by.

“I am desperately looking for a job. Trying to hang on. I don’t want to feel defeated. There is too much injustice going on and that keeps me going,” Little says. “These times call on all of us to step up. We are witnessing the erosion of civil liberties and democracy. Everyone should stop what they’re doing and fight.”