Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is reportedly buying millions of dollars' worth of new surveillance tools as the administration pushes forward with its mass deportation policy.
Federal records reviewed by Politico show ICE ramping up spending on surveillance technology, with more than $300 million slated under the Trump administration for social-media monitoring, facial recognition, license-plate readers, and location-tracking services.
As ICE moves forward with a suite of advanced tracking and surveillance technologies aimed at identifying and locating undocumented immigrants, civil liberties advocates warn the initiative could trigger a sweeping expansion of domestic surveillance that extends far beyond immigrants, potentially ensnaring U.S. citizens and lawful residents as well.
The effort, which has drawn sharp criticism from privacy and rights groups, is part of the Trump administration's push to deploy new technology across immigration enforcement, a strategy critics say weakens privacy guardrails and normalizes powerful surveillance tools for federal agents.
The tech is expected to play a central role in ICE's drive to carry out the president's hard-line and aggressive blueprint for mass deportations.
Federal contracting records show the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has awarded Palantir Technologies more than $139 million for ICE's Investigative Case Management system, a core surveillance and enforcement platform used to track immigration cases. The contract, which began in September 2022 and runs through at least April 2026, covers operations, maintenance, and custom software enhancements, with the total potential value rising to about $159 million if all options are exercised.
Separate federal records show that DHS awarded Clearview AI a $3.75 million contract beginning in September 2025 for facial-recognition software to support Homeland Security Investigations. The one-year deal, which can be extended through 2027, has a potential value of more than $9.2 million, according to federal spending data, and is funded largely through ICE's immigration user fee and operations accounts.
ICE is widely reported to be deploying or expanding the use of mobile biometric applications that allow agents to capture fingerprints and facial images in the field. Tools like the agency's Mobile Fortify app can potentially identify people encountered in public spaces by tapping into government databases.
Since 1974, the Privacy Act has barred the federal government from creating a centralized database of Americans' information to prevent surveillance and misuse. ICE, however, has signed broad data sharing agreements with agencies including the Social Security Administration, the IRS, and the Department of Health and Human Services. The agency cites executive orders from Trump on immigration enforcement and fraud prevention to justify access.
While the Privacy Act allows law enforcement to pursue specific investigations, it does not permit bulk collection, but ICE's agreements appear to enable exactly that. Under its SSA agreement, ICE could request up to 50,000 records per month, including addresses, banking data, and contact information, and it requested over a million records from the IRS in the first four months. Critics warn the move could erode privacy protections for US residents.
Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst with the ACLU's Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, wrote in a post: "Face recognition is a dragnet surveillance technology and its expansion within law enforcement over the last 20 years has been marred by systematic invasions of privacy, inaccuracies, unreliable results, and racial disparities."