President Donald Trump made anti-immigration one of his leading issues during last year’s presidential campaign, promising an unprecedented number of deportations.
In his first eight months in office, that promise translated into about 350,000 deportations—a number that includes deportations by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (about 200,000), Customs and Border Protection (more than 132,000), and nearly 18,000 self-imposed deportations, according to CNN .
ICE has taken center stage in Trump’s mass deportation campaign, raiding homes, workplaces, and public parks in search of undocumented immigrants. To aid in its efforts, ICE has a range of technologies at its disposal that can identify and monitor individuals and communities.
Here are some of the technologies ICE has in its digital arsenal.
ClearView AI facial recognition
Clearview AI is perhaps the most well-known facial recognition company today. For years, the company promised that it could identify any face by searching a large database of photos it had scraped from the internet.
On Monday, 404 Media reported that ICE has signed a contract with the company to support its law enforcement division, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), “with capabilities to identify victims and offenders in cases of child sexual abuse and assaults on law enforcement officers.”
The contract, signed last week, is worth $3.75 million, according to the government’s procurement database.
Ice has had other deals with Clearview AI over the past few years. In September 2024, the agency purchased “forensics software” from the company in a deal worth $1.1 million. A year earlier, ICE paid Clearview AI nearly $800,000 for “facial recognition company licenses.”
ClearView AI did not respond to a request for comment.
Contact us
Do you have more information about ICE and the technology it uses? We’d love to hear how it affects you. From a non-work device, you can securely reach Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai on Signal at +1 917 257 1382 or via Telegram and Keybase @lorenzofb or email. You can also reach TechCrunch via SecureDrop.
Paragon Phone Spyware
In September 2024, Ice signed a $2 million contract with Israeli spyware maker Paragon Solutions. Almost immediately, the Biden administration issued a “stop work order” to review the contract to ensure it complied with the executive order on the government’s use of commercial spyware.
That order kept the contract on hold for nearly a year. Then last week, the Trump administration lifted the suspension order, effectively reactivating the contract.
At this point, it is unclear what the status of Paragon’s relationship with ICE is in practice.
A filing from last week said the deal with Parago is for a “fully configured proprietary solution, including license, hardware, warranty, maintenance and training.” Practically speaking, unless the hardware installation and training were done last year, it could take some time to get the ice system up and running.
Nav arī skaidrs, vai spiegprogrammatūru izmantos ICE vai HSI – aģentūra, kuras izmeklēšana neaprobežojas tikai ar imigrāciju, bet arī aptver arī tiešsaistes bērnu seksuālu izmantošanu, cilvēku tirdzniecību, finansiālu krāpšanu, Un vēlApvidū
Paragons jau sen ir mēģinājis sevi attēlot kā “ētisku” un atbildīgu spiegprogrammatūras veidotāju, un tagad ir jāizlemj, vai ir ētiski strādāt ar Trumpa ledu. Pēdējā gada laikā ir noticis daudz ar Paragonu. Decembrī Amerikas privātā kapitāla giganta AE Industrial iegādājās paragonu ar plānu to apvienot ar kiberdrošības uzņēmumu Sarkano režģi, saskaņā ar Izraēlas tehnoloģiju ziņu vietni KalcālistsApvidū
Zīmē, ka apvienošanās, iespējams, ir notikusi, kad TechCrunch sazinājās ar Paragonu, lai komentētu Ledus līguma atkārtotu aktivizēšanu pagājušajā nedēļā, mēs tikām minēti Redlattice jaunajai mārketinga un komunikāciju viceprezidentam Dženiferai IRA.
Redlattice IRA neatbildēja uz komentāru pieprasījumu par šo rakstu, kā arī par pagājušās nedēļas rakstu.
Dažos pēdējos mēnešos Paragons ir izveidots spiegprogrammatūras skandālā Itālijā, kur valdība ir apsūdzēta par žurnālistu un imigrācijas aktīvistu spiegošanu. Atbildot uz to, Paragons samazināja saites ar Itālijas izlūkošanas aģentūrām.
LexisNexis juridisko un publisko ierakstu datu bāzes
Gadiem ilgi ICE ir izmantojis juridisko pētījumu un publisko ierakstu datu starpnieku LexisNexis, lai atbalstītu savu izmeklēšanu.
2022. gadā divas bezpeļņas organizācijas ieguva dokumentus, izmantojot Informācijas brīvības likuma pieprasījumus, kas atklāja, ka ICE septiņu mēnešu laikā veica vairāk nekā 1,2 miljonus meklējumu, izmantojot rīku ar nosaukumu Accrefint Virtual Crime Center. ICE izmantoja rīku, lai pārbaudītu migrantu pamatinformāciju.
Gadu vēlāk, Pārtveršana atklāja Šis ICE izmantoja lexisnexis, lai atklātu aizdomīgu darbību un izmeklētu migrantus, pirms viņi pat izdarīja noziegumu – programmu, kuru kritiķis sacīja, ka ļāva “masveida uzraudzība”.
Saskaņā ar publiskajiem ierakstiemLexisnexis šobrīd nodrošina ICE “tiesībaizsardzības izmeklēšanas datu bāzes abonementu (LEIDS), kas ļauj piekļūt publiskajiem ierakstiem un komerciāliem datiem, lai atbalstītu kriminālizmeklēšanu”.
Šogad ICE ir samaksājis 4,7 miljonus dolāru, lai abonētu pakalpojumu.
LexisNexis pārstāve Dženifera Ričmane sacīja TechCrunch, ka ICE vairākās administrācijās ir izmantojis uzņēmuma produktu “datus un analītikas risinājumus”.
“Mēs apņemamies atbalstīt atbildīgu un ētisku datu izmantošanu, pilnībā ievērojot likumus un noteikumus, kā arī visu Amerikas Savienoto Valstu iedzīvotāju aizsardzību,” sacīja Ričmans, kurš piebilda, ka LexisNexis “sadarbojas ar vairāk nekā 7500 federālo, valsts, cilšu un teritoriālo aģentūru vairāk nekā 7500, lai attīstītu sabiedrības drošību un drošību.”
Uzraudzības gigants Palantir
Data analytics and surveillance technology giant Palantir has signed several contracts with Ice in the past year. The largest contract, worth $18.5 million through September 2024, is for a database system called “Investigation Case Management,” or ICM.
ICM’s contract runs through 2022, following a $95.9 million deal with Palantir. The Peter Thiel-founded company’s relationship with Ice began in early 2010.
Earlier this year, 404 Media, which has been widely reporting on the technology that is fueling Trump’s deportation efforts and specifically Palantir’s relationship with Ice, revealed details about the workings of the ICM database. The tech news site reported that it showed a recent version of the database that allows ICE to filter people based on their immigration status, physical characteristics, criminal affiliations, location data, and more.
404 Media quoted a “source familiar with the database” who said it is made up of “tables upon tables” of data and that it can produce reports showing, for example, people who are on a certain type of visa, who entered the country at a certain port of entry, who came from a certain country, and who have a certain hair color (or any number of hundreds of data points).
The tool and Palantir’s relationship with ICE were controversial enough that sources at the company leaked to 404 media an internal wiki where Palantir justifies working with Trump’s ICE.
Palantir is also developing a tool called “Immigration,” according to a $30 million deal revealed by Business Insider
. Immigration is said to be designed to streamline “illegal alien screening and detention operations,” giving it “near real-time visibility” into self-imposed immigration and tracking people who overstay their visas, according to a document first reported by Wired .
