President Donald Trump has set a goal of deporting 1 million people annually, and the new system aims to help prioritize who gets targeted.
DENVER ‒ Federal officials are building a sprawling new database system they’re calling “ImmigrationOS” to track and target millions of people living illegally in the United States
A $30 million no-bid contract with GOP megadonor Peter Thiel’s Palantir Technologies will help Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents build a sophisticated system to prioritize people for deportation, including accused gang members and people who have overstayed their tourist visas. The contract with the Denver-based company calls for rolling out a prototype this fall.
Thiel, the founder and chairman of Palantir, is close to Vice President JD Vance and DOGE head Elon Musk, with whom he launched PayPal.
The ImmigrationOS project reflects the approach DOGE has brought to the federal bureaucracy under Trump, as Musk’s deputies seek technology-focused solutions to make government more efficient. Palantir already runs the ICE system used for Homeland Security investigations, and the new ImmigrationOS will merge data from multiple databases from the government and private sources.
Internal Palantir Slack chats and message boards obtained by 404 Media show the contracting giant is helping find the location of people flagged for deportation, that Palantir is now a “more mature partner to ICE,” and how Palantir is addressing employee concerns with discussion groups on ethics.
Leaked: Palantir’s Plan to Help ICE Deport People
Image: Cory Doctorow via Flickr.
Palantir, the surveillance giant, is taking on an increased role with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), including finding the physical location of people who are marked for deportation, according to Palantir Slacks and other internal messages obtained by 404 Media.
The leak shows that Palantir’s work with ICE includes producing leads for law enforcement to find people to deport and keeping track of the logistics of Trump’s mass deportation effort, and provides concrete insight into the Trump administration’s wish to leverage data to enforce its immigration agenda. The internal communications also show Palantir leadership preparing for a potential backlash from employees or outsiders, with them writing FAQs that can be sent to friends or family that start to ask about Palantir’s work with ICE.
Palantir is also partnering with Elon Musk’s SpaceX and drone builder Anduril to build key parts of Golden Dome missile defense shield, people familiar with the matter told Reuters. All three companies are founded by entrepreneurs who have been major political supporters of Trump.
Palantir is the top performer on the S&P 500 .SPX in Trump’s first 100 days as president.
Phil Blancato, CEO of Ladenburg Thalmann Asset Management, said Trump-linked stocks and companies with “a predominantly domestic bias, especially in the manufacturing sector” stand to do quite well under the current administration