Peter Thiel's ICE tracking system raises privacy concerns for the public [View all]

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.

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.

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Civil liberties groups warn systems like ImmigrationOS pose significant risks to the general public, in part because it's unclear how the system would be limited only to people living illegally in the United States. Such a system, they warn, could easily be expanded to target any American.

Trump has suggested that he wants to remove not just immigrants but U.S. citizens if they're deemed dangerous, and said he's ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/05/02/ice-deportation-tracking-palantir-thiel/83375538007/