US: Palantir expanding immigrant surveillance tools for ICE to the tune of $30m
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, commonly known as ICE, has just signed an additional deal with Palantir Technologies worth $30m to track immigrants accused of violent crime, but also those who have overstayed their visas, Business Insider reported on Thursday.
Overstaying a visa has typically been a civil offence, not a criminal one.
Palantir's expanded and refined surveillance tools are also meant to help ICE keep an eye on those who "self-deport", which is something the Department of Homeland Security has been asking certain immigrants to do to avoid being forcibly - and sometimes very publicly - removed.
The new software, dubbed "ImmigrationOS" according to Business Insider's review of the contract, will save "time and resource expenditure" when locating and arresting immigrants, and bring together all the data needed for "end to end immigration lifecycle from identification to removal".
But while the contract states that the tools are necessary to implement the Trump administration's deportation agenda for undocumented immigrants, members of transnational criminal organisations, and now visa overstayers, the contract is an add-on to a Biden administration-era contract signed with Palantir in 2022.
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The White House has indicated it wants to remove one million people from the country this year.
To do that, immigration agents want to be on the "lookout" for potential visa or residency violators, Business Insider noted, as per the reviewed contract, so that when the time comes for "seizure", the process is more efficient.
ImmigrationOS's data sharing capability intends to do just that.
"Palantir has developed deep institutional knowledge of ICE operations over more than a decade of support," the contract said.
Ties
The company's ties with the Department of Homeland Security, under which ICE operates, date back to 2014 and the Obama administration.
While Trump has yet to outpace the number of deportees by his Democratic predecessors significantly, his orders are being implemented with far more fanfare, and they include targets with valid paperwork and no criminal records.
Several graduate students at prestigious universities were very suddenly surrounded and arrested by plainclothes, masked ICE agents either on the street or outside of their homes, then quickly shipped to facilities in the south of the country where immigration judges are more conservative and likely to toe the government line.
At least one thousand other students across the country have been sent emails telling them they must depart as their visas have been revoked. Some cited obscure parking violations going back years as the reason.
Palantir is not unaware that the work with ICE is at best controversial, and at worst, a violation of the constitutional right to due process, which applies to all persons within the United States.
An internal Palantir wiki, or collaborative site, leaked to 404 Media this week showed Palantir leadership insisting that it “remains committed” to “privacy and civil liberty protections" and that its ICE contracts actually "promote transparency".
It further admits, however, that "there will be failures in the removal operations process".
“Many risks will not be within our means to address - some are structural and must be fully baked into the equation by virtue of a willingness to engage at all in these efforts," the company said, according to 404 Media.
Palantir Technologies was co-founded by Republican billionaire Peter Thiel, who was a major financial backer for Trump's 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns.
Despite declining to donate to his 2024 campaign, Thiel said he would be voting for him.
Palantir's new prototype for ICE is set to be delivered at the end of September.
What is Palantir?
One major target for the Trump administration's deportations is students who have taken part in pro-Palestinian protests or even voiced opposition to Israel's war in Gaza. Many may find it concerning that Palantir has in the past offered public support for Israel's war on Gaza
In some circles, Palantir is referred to as the "scariest" of America's tech giants. Others describe it as "the AI arms dealer of the 21st century".
Founded in 2003, the Denver-based Palantir Technologies is a giant analytics company that provides data services to intelligence agencies, law enforcement, and the US military.
Not only did it provide information to the US military during the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, but over the past 10 months in particular, Palantir has provided AI-powered military and surveillance technology support to the Israelis during their war on Gaza.
It has, in the words of Palantir's co-founder Alex Karp, been involved in "crucial operations in Israel".
Palantir says it offers defence technologies that are “mission-tested capabilities, forged in the field” to deliver “a tactical edge - by land, air, sea and space”.
These capabilities include supplying Israel’s military and intelligence agencies with the data to fire missiles at specific targets in Gaza - be it inside homes or in moving vehicles.
One article characterised an agreement between Palantir and the Israeli defence ministry in January as "selling the ministry an Artificial Intelligence Platform that uses reams of classified intelligence reports to make life-or-death determinations about which targets to attack".
According to the American Friends Service Committee, Palantir is one of dozens of companies "profiting from the Gaza genocide".
In October 2023, Palantir took out a full-page ad in The New York Times, reading “Palantir stands with Israel”, and posted on X: “Certain kinds of evil can only be fought with force. Palantir stands with Israel.”
In January, as Israel's war on Gaza entered its third month, Palantir formulated a strategic partnership with the Israeli defence ministry to provide military technology for “war-related missions”.
It also held its first board meeting of 2024 in Tel Aviv, purportedly in solidarity with Israel.
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