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
-
-
A group of immigration judges, who almost never speak to the press, describes the dismantling of our immigration court system from the inside.
Listen to This American Life, with Ira Glass (art by Jane Rosenberg)
-
Here is a September, 2025 conversation between Mark Krikorian, Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies and Border Patrol Chief Michael Banks about recent changes at the southern border.
-
NBC News has published this article and video , Under Trump Administration, ICE scraps paperwork officers once had to do before immigration arrests. This signals a change in the background research that ICE agents had done in the past to conduct a raid and what is now being required.
Targeted arrests might be the result of specific, individual backgrounds and circumstances. They most often occur at someone’s home or work location (places where the detainee is expected to be in their daily lives).
Profiling might be necessary if ICE arrests are commonly made on the streets in non-specific locations.
If ICE paperwork is no longer necessary to make an arrest, they it may be more likely that profiling at street locations will become more common.
-
Here is a video of a debate between two immigration experts, Steven Camarota (Center for Immigration Studies) and David Bier (CATO Institute), about immigrants and their effect on wages and the economy.
-
The FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests and litigation from the Deportation Data Project has provided more publicly available government data. There is now an Immigration Enforcement Dashboard which can provides a searchable database for arrests. Soon, the dashboard functionality will expand to include detainers, detention, encounters, and removals (deportations).
-
According to ICE/DHS data and reported by TRAC (Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse) there are currently 181,000 people wearing Alternatives to Detention Monitors including SmartLINK (smart phone monitoring), Ankle Monitors, and Wrist Monitors.
Alternatives to Detention (ATD) is used by ICE to monitor people who have been released from detention while they wait for their court hearings.
The daily cost per ATD Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP) participant is less than $4.20 per day — much less than the $152 per day fee for migrants held in detention facilities, the agency says.
Here is the full article about Alternatives to Detention.
-
The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that, between March and July (2025), the agricultural workforce fell by 155,000 workers (7%).
The Pew Research Center reports that, between January and July (2025), the U.S. labor force fell by 750,000 immigrant workers.
Farmers, in particular, are being hit hard – not only with changes in the workforce (mentioned above) but the tariffs which may result in lower demand for their crops.
Farmers, especially dairy farmers who need year-round workers preventing their jobs from qualifying for H2A (temporary agricultural) visas, are being hurt by labor shortages.
-
The Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network has published this recommendation (not legal advice) What to do if Faced with Third-Country Deportation
-
This article provides basic information and data about deportations. In April, ICE records show that 17,200 people were deported. Deportation flights are up from 4-4.5/day to 6-6.5/day. But the average number of deportations per day is less than 1000. The White House target is 3000 deportations per day.
