POGO Exposes Ballard Partners Clients Winning No-Bid ICE Biometric Surveillance Contracts

Project On Government Oversight revealed that Ballard Partners—the lobbying firm that employed Attorney General Pam Bondi and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles—secured lucrative no-bid ICE contracts for clients providing controversial biometric surveillance technology. In August, Ballard’s lobbying resulted in ICE awarding BI² Technologies a no-bid contract for iris-scanning surveillance (MORIS system querying a database of 5 million biometric records), while Virginia-based SNA International (retained by Ballard in March) received a no-bid contract worth up to $25 million for DNA testing. This exemplifies pay-to-play corruption where Trump administration insiders use government positions to funnel contracts to their former lobbying clients, embedding immigration enforcement with surveillance technology from connected firms while bypassing competitive bidding requirements.