Palantir Technologies — ICE Surveillance & Case Management Platform

Palantir Technologies is the backbone of ICE’s digital surveillance and enforcement infrastructure. The company provides ICE with its primary case management system, its targeting and enforcement operations platforms, and is building the next-generation system intended to manage the entire “immigration lifecycle” from identification through deportation.

Key Systems

ImmigrationOS (Immigration Lifecycle Operating System)

In April 2025, ICE awarded Palantir a $30 million contract to develop ImmigrationOS, a comprehensive platform intended to streamline the entire deportation pipeline. A prototype was due September 25, 2025, with full operational capability targeted for September 2027. A second $29.9 million task order was awarded in September 2025 for software licenses, operations and maintenance, and adaptive maintenance support. The contract was awarded sole-source, with ICE citing Palantir as the only company capable of providing the required services.

ImmigrationOS capabilities include:

Targeting and enforcement prioritization – Algorithmically sorting who to deport first
Self-deportation tracking – Monitoring whether individuals leave voluntarily
Immigration lifecycle management – Streamlining identification through removal

ELITE (Enhanced Leads Identification & Targeting for Enforcement)

An app that generates a digital map populated with potential deportation targets, each with a detailed dossier including name, date of birth, Alien Registration Number, photograph, and a “confidence score” (out of 100) estimating the accuracy of the target’s known address. ELITE effectively turns enforcement into a gamified targeting operation.

ICM (Investigative Case Management)

Palantir’s case management system for ICE, used to log and manage criminal and civil investigation files. The current ICM contract is worth $139.3 million, awarded in 2022, set to expire April 2026, and slated for sole-source renewal because ICE cannot find another company with a comparable system.

FALCON (now replaced by ImmigrationOS)

Until 2022, FALCON was Palantir’s custom-built app for ICE that tracked agents’ and targets’ locations during enforcement operations, recorded and shared information from in-person encounters in real-time, and searched federal and privately owned databases for names, locations, vehicles, and passport information. ICE briefly replaced FALCON with an in-house system but returned to Palantir software in late 2024 after the in-house replacement failed.

AI-Enhanced Tip Processing

ICE uses Palantir’s generative AI tools to sort and summarize immigration enforcement tips submitted through its public tip form, helping investigators “more quickly identify and action tips” for urgent cases.

Total ICE Contract Value

Reporting indicates Palantir’s total ICE contract value reached approximately $287 million in 2025, making it by far ICE’s largest surveillance technology contractor. With ImmigrationOS renewals and ICM continuation, this figure continues to grow.

Data Integration

Palantir systems pull data from across government databases – passport records, Social Security files, IRS tax data, license plate reader data – regardless of the accuracy of those databases. The systems also integrate data from private-sector data brokers including Thomson Reuters CLEAR and LexisNexis.

USCIS Expansion

In December 2025, a new contract revealed Palantir is building a technology platform for USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Services), which works alongside ICE. This expands Palantir’s reach beyond enforcement into the immigration benefits system itself.

Detention Pipeline