Surveillance tools that could be used to crackdown on immigration by Trump
Apps and ankle-monitors that can track asylum seekers wherever they are in real-time. Personal information such as fingerprints and images of faces are stored in databases. The New York Times analysis shows that his administration can tap a stockpile of tools built up by Democrats and Republicans, which is nearly unmatched in the Western world. According to The New York Times, the Trump administration has a large arsenal of tools, built by Democrats and Republicans, that are unmatched anywhere in the Western World. Families are treated differently than individuals. The contracts were for both mundane technology like phone services and advanced tools. Palantir, a provider of data-analysis software co-founded with billionaire Peter Thiel received over $1 billion in the last four years. Venntel is a location data provider that had at least $7 contracts with ICE between 2018 and 2022 totaling $330,000. The Biden administration utilized many of these technologies to enforce immigration laws, including investigations into drug trafficking and human smuggling, as well as transnational gang activities. It is unclear how Mr. Trump will use these tools, given that the location of many immigrants is known and there is a shortage of detention facilities and officers. But Mr. Trump’s immigration agenda has been radically different from the one of his predecessor. He announced this week a series of executive actions that would lock down borders and deport migrants and asylum seekers. Thomas Homan, the administration’s border czar, has discussed meeting with tech companies about available tools.
“They’ll certainly use all tools at their disposal, including new tech available to them,” said John Torres, a former acting assistant secretary for ICE.
A White House spokesman declined to comment. ICE stated in a press release that it uses “various forms of technology and information” to accomplish its mission while respecting privacy and civil liberties, in accordance with the applicable laws. Many tools were designed for investigations of drug traffickers and other criminals, not tracking migrants, he said, while other technology like license plate readers could be used to ease traffic at border crossings.
The federal government has had longstanding internal policies to limit how surveillance tools could be used, but those restrictions can be lifted by a new administration, Mr. Hysen added. “Those are things that can change, but they are not easy to change,” he said.
Creating an arsenal
The buildup of immigration tech goes back to at least the creation of the Homeland Security Department after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The tools have fueled an interest that will likely grow under President Trump. Leaders in Europe and elsewhere are also investing in the technologies as some adopt increasingly restrictive immigration policies.
Many companies are racing to meet the demand, offering gear to fortify borders and services to track immigrants once they are inside a country.
In the United States, the beneficiaries include the makers of GPS tracking devices, digital forensics tools and data brokers. Palantir, among others, won contracts from ICE to store and analyze data. Thomson Reuters, Lexis Nexis and credit rating companies provide access to databases of personal information that can help government agents find the homes, workplaces and social connections of citizens and noncitizens alike.
Clearview AI, a facial recognition firm, had contracts worth nearly $9 million, according to government records. Cellebrite is an Israeli company that cracks phones. It sold $54 million worth of investigative tools to ICE. The F.B.I. famously used Cellebrite tools in 2016 to unlock the iPhone of a mass shooter in San Bernardino, Calif., to aid the investigation.
Investors have taken note. Geo Group’s stock has doubled in value since Donald Trump was elected president. The company sells monitoring software to ICE. In a November investor call, Wayne Calabrese, Geo Group’s chief operating officer, said that the company expected the “Trump administration to take a much more expansive approach to monitoring the several millions of individuals” who were going through immigration proceedings but had not been detained. Lexis Nexis, Clearview and Palantir did not respond to requests for comment.
In an investor call in November, Wayne Calabrese, Geo Group’s chief operating officer, said the company expected the “Trump administration to take a much more expansive approach to monitoring the several millions of individuals” who were going through immigration proceedings but had not been detained.
“We have assured ICE of our capability to rapidly scale up,” he said.
In a statement for this article, Geo Group, based in Boca Raton, Fla., said it looked forward to supporting the Trump administration “as it moves quickly to achieve its announced plans and objectives for securing the country’s borders and enforcing its immigration laws.”
Tracking locations
One technology that may be used immediately in mass deportations can identify the exact location of immigrants, experts said.
About 180,000 undocumented immigrants wear an ankle bracelet with a GPS tracking device, or use an app called SmartLink that requires them to log their whereabouts at least once a day. The technology, which is made by a Geo group subsidiary, is used as part of a program known as Alternatives to Detention. The program began in 2004 and expanded during the Biden administration to digitally surveil people instead of holding them in detention centers.
Location data collected through the program has been used in at least one ICE raid, according to a court document reviewed by The Times. In August 2019 during the first Trump Administration, agents tracked the location of a female participant in the program. That helped the agents obtain a search warrant for a chicken processing plant in Mississippi, where raids across the state resulted in the detention of roughly 680 immigrants with uncertain legal status.
Sejal Zota, the legal director of Just Futures Law, a group that opposes government surveillance programs, said the Trump administration would likely need to rely on digital surveillance tools as it would be impossible to physically detain vast numbers of individuals without legal status.
“While this administration wants to scale up detention, and I believe that it will find ways to do that, it will take time,” she said. “I think that this program will continue to remain important as a method to surveil and control people.”
Troves of data
The Trump administration also has access to private databases with biometrics, addresses and criminal records. Agents can obtain records of utility bills for roughly three-quarters of Americans and driver’s licenses for a third of Americans, according to a 2022 study by Georgetown University.
These tools could potentially be used to track people high on ICE’s priority list, like those with a criminal history or people who do not show up for immigration court hearings. Investigators could use the databases to find someone’s automobile information, then use license plate readers to pinpoint their location.
During the first Trump administration, ICE could access driver’s license data through private companies in states like Oregon and Washington, even after the state tried cutting off access to the information to the federal government, according to the Georgetown study.
Mr. Former ICE official Torres said that this information is crucial for agents in order to locate people. Agents can triangulate their locations based on habits using “big data sharing.” This has raised privacy issues. “Privacy harms may seem theoretical on paper, but they’re never theoretical for vulnerable people on the front lines,” said Justin Sherman, a distinguished fellow at Georgetown Law’s Center on Privacy and Technology.
During the Biden administration, ICE also bought software from Babel Street, a tech company that gathers data from thousands of publicly available websites and other sources. The company’s services allow users to assess potential security threats based on their data. Babel Street declined to comment on requests. Some immigration experts have questioned the extent to which this technology may be used by the Trump administration. Dave Maass is the director of investigations for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. A civil liberties organization. He said that some tools are more relevant for targeted investigations than for mass deportations. Regardless, he said, tech companies “are going to make a lot of money.”
Methodology
The New York Times analyzed government contract data from usaspending.gov. The data covered Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Citizenship and Immigration Services spending between 2020 and the present. The Times used recipient information and the contract description to filter data for technology-related contracts. The Times calculated the total spending by looking at actual money spent and not pledged.
