Clearview AI, Paragon Solutions, and Palantir: How ICE’s Immigration Deportation Campaign Employs Advanced Surveillance Technologies
The Trump administration’s focus on immigration enforcement has been evident in the past year, with an estimated 350,000 deportations taking place between January and August. This figure includes those handled by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection, and self-deportations.
In the spotlight for immigration enforcement efforts, ICE has been utilizing various technologies to identify and monitor individuals and communities. Among these tools is Clearview AI, a facial recognition company known for its ability to identify faces through an extensive database of internet photos.
On Monday, it was reported that ICE signed a contract with Clearview AI worth $3.75 million to support Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), providing capabilities to identify victims and offenders in child sexual exploitation cases and assaults against law enforcement officers. Previous contracts between the two parties include a $1.1 million deal for “forensic software” in September 2024, and nearly $800,000 for facial recognition enterprise licenses in the year prior.
Clearview AI did not respond to requests for comment.
In another development, ICE entered into a $2 million contract with Israeli spyware maker Paragon Solutions in September 2024. The contract was temporarily halted due to an executive order on government use of commercial spyware but was recently reactivated by the Trump administration. It remains unclear whether Paragon’s spyware will be used by ICE or HSI, whose investigations encompass immigration, online child sexual exploitation, human trafficking, financial fraud, and more.
Paragon is currently in a merger with cybersecurity company Red Lattice, following an acquisition by American private equity giant AE Industrial in December. When contacted for comment on the reactivation of the ICE contract, Paragon referred TechCrunch to RedLattice’s new vice president of marketing and communications Jennifer Iras, who did not respond to requests for comment.
For years, ICE has utilized legal research and public records data broker LexisNexis to support its investigations. In 2022, it was discovered that ICE performed over 1.2 million searches in seven months using a tool called Accurint Virtual Crime Center, which was used to check the background information of migrants. Critics argued this program enabled “mass surveillance.”
According to public records, LexisNexis currently provides ICE with a subscription to a law enforcement investigative database, with access to public records and commercial data for criminal investigations. This year, ICE paid $4.7 million to subscribe to the service.
Data analytics and surveillance technology giant Palantir has signed several contracts with ICE in the past year. The most significant contract, worth $18.5 million from September 2024, is for a database system called “Investigative Case Management” (ICM). The contract goes back to 2022, when Palantir signed a $95.9 million deal with the company.
Details of ICM were recently revealed by 404 Media, which reported seeing a recent version of the database that allows ICE to filter people based on their immigration status, physical characteristics, criminal affiliation, location data, and more. The tool has been controversial, leading to internal leaks justifying Palantir’s work with ICE.
Palantir is also developing a tool called “ImmigrationOS,” according to a contract worth $30 million revealed by Business Insider. This tool aims to streamline the selection and apprehension of illegal aliens, provide near real-time visibility into self-deportations, and track people overstaying their visa.
