WASHINGTON: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is deploying a high-tech mapping and targeting tool developed with data analytics firm Palantir Technologies to identify and locate immigrants for potential deportation, according to internal documents and reporting by independent media. The application, known as Enhanced Leads Identification & Targeting for Enforcement or ELITE, integrates personal data from multiple federal and commercial sources to produce detailed, interactive maps of enforcement targets.
ELITE, part of a roughly $30 million contract with Palantir, displays individuals’ names, photos, birth dates, government identification numbers, and an “address confidence score” that estimates the likelihood a person resides at a given location. Agents can filter potential targets by factors such as location and demographic attributes, and select clusters of individuals to prioritize enforcement operations.
Internal guides describe the tool as a way to rapidly pinpoint “target-rich” areas where multiple potential deportees are concentrated, streamlining the planning of raids and deployments. A sworn deposition from an ICE official cited in reporting confirms ELITE has been used in actual field actions.
Civil liberties advocates and some lawmakers have raised concerns about the ethics and privacy implications of the system. “This app allows ICE to find the closest person to arrest and disappear, using government and commercial data,” Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden said in critique of the tool’s ease of use and potential for misuse.
Palantir has yet to comment on how the software is used or what safeguards govern sensitive data. ICE officials have previously defended advanced data systems as necessary for efficient enforcement, but public transparency around ELITE’s operations remains limited.