Today, we are sharing ICE records on Palantir that show how the company has long been enmeshed in the day-to-day operations fueling ICE surveillance and deportations. These records were obtained via a FOIA lawsuit filed in 2019. The documents include emails, training guides and progress reports between Palantir and ICE spanning 2014-2022.The records show how Palantir has been deeply entrenched in ICE’s data surveillance system for more than a decade — for example, helping the agency map cell phone location data, query “person crossing” data, comb through millions of data points about student visas, import data from phone hacking company Cellebrite, and more.
See today’s coverage in The Guardian here.
We have highlighted some key links below. We hope these documents can be helpful in your work to resist ICE, including the central role of corporations like Palantir.
Key FOIA Links and Takeaways:
The FOIA documents suggest ICE used Palantir platforms and technologies to:Access Cellebrite data (Cellebrite devices are used by law enforcement to quickly unlock and extract data from seized cell phones, laptops and other devices).
(Link, pp. 12-19)Map GPS cell phone geolocation data, or “when and where an event ‘ping’ occurred.” (Link, pp. 28-38 — see screenshot below)Access nearly 5 million records about non-immigrant students and their dependents via SEVIS (Student and Exchange Visitor Information System).
(Link, p. 25)Comb through an array of surveillance datasets such as Thomson Reuters CLEAR, local and state law enforcement data, court records, and more.
(Link, p. 41)Troubleshoot how to geocode IP addresses.
(Link, p. 16)Search “Person Crossing” data as well as international travel records (or APIS, Advance Passenger Information System).
(Link, pp. 12-15)Sort through datasets to identify targets, for example, by looking up names, birth dates, and FINS (Federal Identification Numbers) in Palantir systems that can then quickly extract data about those people from many other sources — e.g. a “bulk run.”
(Link, pp. 104-105)Palantir FALCON is a now-retired data analytics app that ICE used to generate intelligence reports and conduct mass raids. The FOIA documents include emails indicating that ICE officers using FALCON could access the app indefinitely — even if they had, for example, stopped working for the government.
(Link)Palantir materials suggest that Palantir staff embedded with ICE as agency data analysts and engineers.
(Link, p.8) Many groups have challenged Palantir’s previous statements that it does not work with ICE ERO (Enforcement and Removal Operations), the part of ICE explicitly tasked with deporting people. The FOIA documents suggest that during the first Trump administration, ERO staff were able to access Palantir technologies
(Link). Marking a shift in the company’s defensive stance if not in its work, today Palantir is unapologetic about its work to “support deportation logistics planning and execution.
“Link to contract related documents (note: contract amounts redacted by ICE)
.Link to FOIA DocumentsGPS cell phone location surveillance using Palantir technologies
(Link, p. 36).Read Coverage in The GuardianWhile Palantir has been “mission-critical” to ICE for over a decade, the federal government is now massively expanding its reliance on Palantir to power deportations and consolidate systems of state surveillance. Palantir was recently awarded a no-bid $30 million contract to build a new deportation surveillance system, ImmigrationOS, to enable ICE to use near real-time data to locate people to detain and deport — launching as soon as this month. We have filed new FOIA requests with ICE, DHS and DOGE requesting new information on the mass surveillance system Palantir is reportedly building for the Trump administration, including documents on the data-deportation platform ImmigrationOS.
Copies of JFL’s latest FOIA requests are available here.
In solidarity,
Just Futures Law |
Immigration Insight 