Immigration and Customs Enforcement has signed a $30 million deal with Palantir for software add-ons to track self-deportations and immigrants who have overstayed their visas, government records show.
A contract reviewed by Business Insider said the Immigration Lifecycle Operating System — or ImmigrationOS — will minimize “time and resource expenditure” for selecting and apprehending immigrants based on ICE enforcement priorities.
Along with “violent criminals” and “affiliates of known transnational criminal organizations,” the contract also cited visa overstays as a deportation priority.
ImmigrationOS will expand ICE’s case management system to include “near real-time visibility into instances of self-deportation.” The contract said the new ImmigrationOS will streamline “end to end immigration lifecycle from identification to removal.”
The agency is awarding Palantir $29.8 million for a prototype to be delivered by September 25.
According to the contract, the new software is necessary for ICE to carry out President Donald Trump’s recent executive orders naming illegal immigration and transnational organized crime as significant national security threats.
An ICE spokesperson said the deal is a modification to an existing contract. Palantir did not respond to requests for comment.
The new agreement is an extension of a contract the Biden administration signed with the defense contractor in 2022 for “operations and maintenance” support services. The Department of Homeland Security first contracted Palantir to build its case management system in 2014.
The software collates information from a wide range of government databases and allows DHS agents to keep detailed records on potential immigration violators for future enforcement actions. It includes “data sharing with Customs and Border Protection for lookout and seizure tracking.”
The documents underscore an increased emphasis on deporting immigrants who have entered the country legally but may have violated the conditions of their visas, which is typically a civil, not a criminal, offense.
“Palantir has developed deep institutional knowledge of ICE operations over more than a decade of support,” ICE wrote in the documents. “Their systems have been tailored to meet strict DHS security and privacy standards.”
Palantir employees have been working over the past several weeks to increase ICE capacity to track immigrants already given a final order of removal, and will continue to fast-track an ImmigrationOS prototype, per 404 Media.
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