Data analytics corporation Palantir has emerged as a key technology provider for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) mass deportation operation. On the 3rd, the Washington Post reported that Palantir's software, the Immigration Lifecycle Operations System, is being used across the entire process of tracking, identifying, and deporting undocumented immigrants, playing a central role in the mass deportation stance strengthened by President Trump.
Palantir had been a corporation that refused to cooperate with ICE's deportation wing in the past. Alex Karp, Palantir's co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO), has long been a Democrat, and the company has emphasized "progressive values" and civil liberties. About a decade ago, Karp criticized Trump's deportation policy as "nonsense," and Palantir avoided direct involvement in deportation operations by maintaining contracts only with the Department of Homeland Security's investigative unit handling prostitution, narcotics, and terrorism investigations within ICE. However, according to the Washington Post, Karp and the company completely changed their stance this year and moved to actively participate in building ICE's mass deportation infrastructure.
In April, Palantir signed a $30 million (about 42 billion won) contract with ICE to begin building immigration software, and in September expanded the total contract size to $60 million. ICE procurement documents state that the system aims to "automate processes for the rapid screening, arrest, and deportation of unlawfully present foreign nationals," integrating vast data such as stay records, border encounters, asylum applications, and welfare applications to identify and categorize people in near real time. In the contract, ICE assessed Palantir as "the only corporation that can provide the necessary capabilities without delay."
Karp's ideological shift also draws attention. In written answers to the Washington Post, he argued that "the truly progressive position on immigration is extreme skepticism," adding that "Europe's unlimited immigration has depressed working-class wages and caused social unrest." Karp emphasized that he is still an economic progressive while criticizing that "progressive politics in the United States has turned a blind eye to border control." The Washington Post analyzed that Karp's views on immigration changed rapidly after Hamas' attack on Israel in 2023, as he grew closer to Republican national security hard-liners.
However, there is pushback within Palantir. Some employees worried that the immigration software could weaken judicial oversight mechanisms and undermine principles of civil liberties, and in fact, there were employees who resigned this year citing ICE's expanded remit. Tech figures including Paul Graham, Google co-founder, criticized Palantir for "building a police-state infrastructure." Thirteen former Palantir employees said in an open letter that the company is "complicit in normalizing American authoritarianism."
Palantir did not deny that the intensified border control trend under Trump's second-term administration influenced the corporation's strategic shift. This year, ICE expanded sweeping arrest operations in cities such as Chicago and Charlotte under the rubric of "the worst of the worst," and President Trump reaffirmed a policy of a full halt to illegal immigration in his Thanksgiving address. In internal materials, Palantir explained that "as the national debate shifts to crime and border control, the existing scope of work alone cannot meet government demands."
Meanwhile, Palantir also revised its employee code of conduct. It removed provisions previously included on "banning unfair practices based on race or origin" and "awareness of unconscious bias," replacing them with broader, law-centered language. The Washington Post said the change appears to be influenced by the Trump administration's executive order banning diversity mandates.
As it became known that Palantir's technology has been deployed in ICE deportation operations, controversy is expected to continue over the scope of government collaboration by technology corporations and the transparency of immigration enforcement. In response, Palantir dismissed the controversy, saying it is "a corporation that performs contracts according to the law, not an agency that sets policy."