The 'Google Maps' that ICE uses to hunt down immigrants

BarcelonaIt works like Google Maps. You open the app and a map appears that allows you to identify "target-rich" environments. When the user taps on one of the marked points, information about the person appears: name, photo, date of birth, and a special number assigned by the government.

The ELITE app (an acronym for Enhanced Identification and Selection of Leads for Law Enforcement), developed by Palantir Technologies, allows agents from ICE, the controversial Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service, to select suspected migrants likely to be detained. the impunity of the Trump administration, have started a indiscriminate hunting of immigrants in the United States

It has been designed to be "intuitive," with a simple and user-friendly interface, so that users—in this case, the agents—can navigate it easily. When searching for a "target," the application provides a dossier with all their data and assigns a "trust" score, based on the probability of the person being at a specific address, explains Simona Levi, founder of Xnet, Institute for Democratic Digitalization, to ARA. Through probabilistic algorithms, it also allows the identification of neighborhoods or areas where arrests can be maximized. "Through these tools, they connect, cleanse, and create data that is already in the hands of the government—such as immigration records, addresses, and arrest histories—and turn it into operational intelligence: they create maps, profiles, prioritize..." she adds.

How is a target defined? This is one of the most problematic points. The application draws on the database of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and other official sources, including Medicaid, the country's public health program. It also uses private data held by the company, such as phone records, license plate numbers, and business data. From this data, algorithms are developed that allow agents to filter areas based on criteria such as the likelihood of finding undocumented immigrants. Furthermore, ELITE can instantly show the relatives, neighbors, or coworkers of a "target" individual, facilitating "collateral arrests"—that is, the arrest of people who were not the original target but happen to be in the area of ​​the raid. This practice is becoming increasingly common.

Several organizations have denounced the use of algorithms to decide which neighborhoods to patrol, claiming they reflect racist and random biases. The use of medical data to deport immigrants has been one of the points criticized by the Electronic Founder Foundation, which took the complaint to US courts. "Now we have the first evidence that our concerns have become a reality," the organization warned in a recent statement. In their view, government records provide enormous power to administrations that "can become abusive": "The danger arises when the government begins to aggregate this data [collected through official channels] and use it for reasons that have nothing to do with the purpose for which it was collected."

A controversial company

When founding Palantir, Peter Thiel didn't make much of an effort to hide his objective: the company is named after the "seeing stones" ofThe Lord of the Ringswhich allow you to see everything from afar. In the books, as in a somewhat unforced metaphor for current events, Sauron (the villain) captures one and uses it to corrupt whoever looks through it.

Palantir's technology hasn't only been put at the service of ICE detentions. In January 2024—three months after the offensive on Gaza began—the company signed a contract with the Israeli Ministry of Defense to supply technology to assist in "operational missions." In the Gaza war, Its AI target-generating technology has been put at the service of the Israeli military machine....in actions that human rights organizations such as the Global Legal Action Network have condemned as complicity in war crimes and genocide.

In addition to having a $10 billion contract with the Pentagon for software development, The company is also deeply embedded in the Trump project through ideological means.Thiel was the only major tech leader to take the stage at the 2016 Republican National Convention to endorse Trump; he has been Vice President JD Vance's godfather, funding his Senate campaign; and he is one of the leading ideologues of the new tech right surrounding the president: he believes that democracy and freedom "are no longer compatible" and that taxes stifle innovation. The latest example of Palantir's alliance with the US administration has been the pilot project with US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to help officials "identify fraudulent benefit claims." It is precisely under these accusations that Trump has justified the increased presence of ICE in cities like Minneapolis.