Congress Turns Up Pressure on DHS Over Palantir’s Role in Immigration Crackdown | EUROtoday

Thirty-four members of Congress are demanding that the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement present detailed details about how instruments developed by Palantir and “a range of surveillance companies” are fueling Trump’s ongoing immigration crackdown, in keeping with a letter shared completely with WIRED.

On Thursday, the lawmakers despatched the letter to DHS secretary Markwayne Mullin and performing ICE secretary Todd Lyons. It outlines vital issues they’ve about how DHS makes use of software program developed by Palantir, in addition to facial recognition from Clearview AI, social media surveillance instruments from PenLink, cell tower simulators from L3Harris, and and cellphone surveillance tech constructed by Paragon Solutions.

The lawmakers claimed that the suite of instruments may very well be used to “compile, aggregate, and analyze large volumes of personal data and information,” and so they questioned “what safeguards exist, if any, to prevent the misuse and collection of sensitive personal information.”

“These tools contribute to a mass surveillance ecosystem that appears to operate in conjunction with Palantir-developed platforms and ultimately support enforcement operations conducted by DHS, some of which target U.S. citizens,” the letter reads. It calls for a response from ICE and DHS no later than April 24.

The letter included a number of particular questions on Palantir, together with which “government and/or commercial datasets and information, if any,” are built-in into programs developed by the corporate. They additionally requested a couple of Palantir-developed app known as “ELITE,” quick for “Enhanced Leads Identification and Targeting for Enforcement.” Lawmakers requested a “comprehensive report” concerning the device, together with details about its improvement, its goal, the particular classes it applies to information, and the present variety of DHS officers approved to make use of it.

New York Democrat Dan Goldman, a lead writer on the letter, tells WIRED that he believes the second Trump administration has “weaponized” expertise from Palantir as a way to energy its “inhumane mass deportation agenda” in addition to “surveil Americans citizens.”

“The use of these tools raises serious concerns about civil liberties and privacy, yet DHS and ICE have thus far refused to provide transparency about how they are using these tools and what information they are collecting about American citizens,” Goldman says.

The letter’s concentrate on Palantir underscores how the Trump administration’s rising reliance on the corporate’s expertise has grow to be more and more politically divisive. Palantir is a vital contractor for ICE and Customs and Border Protection, each of that are a part of the Department of Homeland Security. WIRED beforehand reported that ICE at the moment makes use of a number of instruments developed by Palantir. In addition to ELITE, Palantir constructed ICE’s “core law enforcement case management tool,” in addition to the Immigration Lifecycle Operating System (ImmigrationOS), which immigration brokers use to pick out deportation instances and observe who has been deported.

Palantir’s income from authorities contracts has grown steadily for the reason that firm’s founding in 2004, and it elevated throughout each Democratic and Republican administrations. However, for the reason that starting of Trump’s second time period, that enterprise has exploded. The firm earned a document of roughly $1 billion in funds and obligations from authorities companies within the 2025 fiscal 12 months, practically twice as a lot because it earned the 12 months prior.

In the letter, lawmakers additionally requested details about any “legal authorities” and inside insurance policies that DHS makes use of to find out how the info it collects and aggregates is used, or how lengthy it’s saved.

Lawmakers additionally requested whether or not DHS and ICE “collect or retain” the private information belonging to US residents, citing instances the place US residents encountered ICE and Border Patrol brokers who then used facial recognition to study the residents’ identities. The lawmakers additionally requested if DHS has “collected or stored or otherwise processed information about individuals peacefully observing, documenting or protesting immigration enforcement operations,” and requested detailed details about any facial recognition instruments used throughout immigration enforcement.”

Democratic consultant John Garamendi, who signed the letter, tells WIRED that it’s “Congress’s duty” to carefully oversee any probably unlawful surveillance of Americans. “As an out-of-control ICE terrorizes local communities and attacks American citizens, it’s increasingly clear that this alarming new reality demands action,” Garamendi says.