In just the first 8 months of the new presidential term, the US recorded about 350,000 cases of deportation, of which ICE accounted for more than 200,000 cases. To achieve this figure, ICE uses many monitoring technologies. Among them, Clearview AI technology is famous for its ability to identify from a huge photo warehouse on the internet. ICE has repeatedly signed contracts with the company, most recently a $3.75 million deal to support the investigation into child sexual abuse and assault on law enforcement officers.
In 2024, ICE signed a $2 million contract with Paragon Solutions ( Israel) to buy Paragon spyware. The contract was initially suspended due to an order to limit trade intelligence software, but was recently allowed by the government to return. The level of ICE's use is currently unknown, however, Paragon was involved in a scandal that followed journalists and activists in Italy.
ICE also cooperates with LexisNexis - a large data brokerage company to access public and commercial records. In 2022, the agency conducted more than 1.2 million searches for migrants' information in 7 months. This year, ICE continues to spend $4.7 million on this service.
Palantir - a data technology company founded by billionaire Peter Thiel, is a long-time partner of ICE. The multi-million-dollar "Income Management" (ICM) system allows ICE to filter and analyze data on migrants based on their immigration status, identification characteristics, criminal relationships or location. Palantir also developed the ImmigrationOS tool to monitor cases of self-deportation and monitor people with over-expiry visas.
The ICE's use of surveillance technologies has sparked controversy over privacy, but is still being promoted as part of a large-scale deportation campaign.
