President Donald Trump made countering immigration one in all his flagship points throughout final yr’s presidential marketing campaign, promising an unprecedented variety of deportations.
In his first eight months in workplace, that promise was round 350,000 deportations, a determine that features deportations by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (round 200,000), Customs and Border Safety (greater than 132,000), and virtually 18,000 self-deportations, according to CNN.
ICE has taken middle stage in Trump’s mass deportation marketing campaign, raiding houses, workplaces, and public parks looking for undocumented immigrants. To assist its efforts, the ICE has at its disposal a number of applied sciences able to figuring out and surveilling people and communities.
Here’s a recap of a few of the expertise that ICE has in its digital arsenal.
Clearview AI facial recognition
Clearview AI is probably probably the most well-known facial recognition firm right now. For years, the corporate promised to have the ability to establish any face by looking out by a big database of photographs it had scraped from the web.
On Monday, 404 Media reported that ICE has signed a contract with the corporate to help its legislation enforcement arm Homeland Safety Investigations (HSI), “with capabilities of figuring out victims and offenders in baby sexual exploitation instances and assaults towards legislation enforcement officers.”
In accordance with a authorities procurement database, the contract signed final week is price $3.75 million.
ICE has had other contracts with Clearview AI within the final couple of years. In September 2024, the company bought “forensic software program” from the corporate, a deal price $1.1 million. The yr earlier than, ICE paid Clearview AI practically $800,000 for “facial recognition enterprise licenses.”
Clearview AI didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Contact Us
Do you’ve extra details about ICE and the expertise it makes use of? We might like to learn the way this impacts you. From a non-work gadget, you’ll be able to contact Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai securely on Sign at +1 917 257 1382, or by way of Telegram and Keybase @lorenzofb, or e-mail. You can also contact TechCrunch by way of SecureDrop.
Paragon cellphone spyware and adware
In September 2024, ICE signed a contract price $2 million with Israeli spyware and adware maker Paragon Options. Nearly instantly, the Biden administration issued a “cease work order,” putting the contract under review to ensure it complied with an government order on the federal government’s use of business spyware and adware.
Due to that order, for practically a yr, the contract remained in limbo. Then, final week, the Trump administration lifted the cease work order, successfully reactivating the contract.
At this level, it’s unclear what’s the standing of Paragon’s relationship with ICE in observe.
The information entry from final week mentioned that the contract with Parago is for “a completely configured proprietary answer together with license, {hardware}, guarantee, upkeep, and coaching.” Virtually talking, except the {hardware} set up and coaching have been accomplished final yr, it could take a while for ICE to have Paragon’s system up and operating.
It’s additionally unclear if the spyware and adware will likely be utilized by ICE or HSI, an company whose investigations aren’t restricted to immigration, but additionally cowl on-line baby sexual exploitation, human trafficking, monetary fraud, and more.
Paragon has lengthy tried to painting itself as an “moral” and accountable spyware and adware maker, and now has to determine if it’s moral to work with Trump’s ICE. So much has occurred to Paragon within the final yr. In December, American personal fairness large AE Industrial bought Paragon, with a plan to merge it with cybersecurity firm Purple Lattice, based on Israeli tech information web site Calcalist.
In an indication that the merger could have taken place, when TechCrunch reached out to Paragon for touch upon the reactivation of the ICE contract final week, we have been referred to RedLattice’s new vp of selling and communications Jennifer Iras.
RedLattice’s Iras didn’t reply to a request for remark for this text, nor for final week’s article.
In the previous couple of months, Paragon has been ensnared in a spyware and adware scandal in Italy, the place the federal government has been accused of spying on journalists and immigration activists. In response, Paragon reduce ties with Italy’s intelligence companies.
LexisNexis’ authorized and public information databases
For years, ICE has used the authorized analysis and public information knowledge dealer LexisNexis to help its investigations.
In 2022, two non-profits obtained paperwork by way of Freedom of Data Act requests, which revealed that ICE carried out greater than 1.2 million searches over seven months utilizing a device known as Accurint Digital Crime Heart. ICE used the device to examine the background info of migrants.
A yr later, The Intercept revealed that ICE was utilizing LexisNexis to detect suspicious exercise and examine migrants earlier than they even dedicated a criminal offense, a program {that a} critic mentioned enabled “mass surveillance.”
According to public records, LexisNexis presently supplies ICE “with a legislation enforcement investigative database subscription (LEIDS) which permits entry to public information and business knowledge to help felony investigations.”
This yr, ICE has paid $4.7 million to subscribe to the service.
LexisNexis spokesperson Jennifer Richman advised TechCrunch that ICE has used the corporate’s product “knowledge and analytics options for many years, throughout a number of administrations.”
“Our dedication is to help the accountable and moral use of information, in full compliance with legal guidelines and rules, and for the safety of all residents of america,” mentioned Richman, who added that LexisNexis “companions with greater than 7,500 federal, state, native, tribal, and territorial companies throughout america to advance public security and safety.”
Surveillance large Palantir
Information analytics and surveillance expertise large Palantir has signed several contracts with ICE within the final yr. The largest contract, price $18.5 million from September 2024, is for a database system known as “Investigative Case Administration,” or ICM.
The contract for ICM goes again to 2022, when Palantir signed a $95.9 million cope with Palantir. The Peter Thiel-founded firm’s relationship with ICE dates again to the early 2010s.
Earlier this yr, 404 Media, which has reported extensively on the expertise powering Trump’s deportation efforts, and particularly Palantir’s relationship with ICE, revealed particulars of how the ICM database works. The tech information web site reported that it noticed a current model of the database, which permits ICE to filter individuals primarily based on their immigration standing, bodily traits, felony affiliation, location knowledge, and extra.
404 Media cited “a supply acquainted with the database,” who mentioned it’s made up of ‘tables upon tables’ of information and that it may well construct reviews that present, for instance, people who find themselves on a particular kind of visa who got here into the nation at a particular port of entry, who got here from a particular nation, and who’ve a particular hair shade (or any variety of a whole bunch of information factors).”
The device, and Palantir’s relationship with ICE, was controversial sufficient that sources throughout the firm leaked to 404 Media an internal wiki the place Palantir justifies working with Trump’s ICE.
Palantir can be creating a device known as “ImmigrationOS,” based on a contract price $30 million revealed by Business Insider.
ImmigrationOS is alleged to be designed to streamline the “choice and apprehension operations of unlawful aliens,” give “close to real-time visibility” into self-deportations, and observe individuals overstaying their visa, based on a document first reported on by Wired.