U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is planning a $100 million intelligence program that could map relationships between immigrants and people connected to them, including relatives, friends and acquaintances, raising concerns about surveillance extending beyond immigration enforcement targets.
The initiative, called Enforcement and Removal Operations Overwatch and National Security Enforcement (ERO ONE), would deploy 142 intelligence contractors with top-secret security clearances across more than two dozen U.S. cities and Washington, D.C., according to federal procurement documents examined by The American Prospect.
Under the proposal, contractors would analyze classified and unclassified information to identify relationships among individuals, organizations, locations and activities. They would produce network diagrams, timelines and intelligence assessments for ICE operations.
The documents do not specify which individuals would be investigated or what information sources would be used. A contract solicitation is expected in December, with an award potentially following in February.
"It looks dangerously like the construction of an internal spying agency," Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst at the American Civil Liberties Union, told The American Prospect. "It's a nightmare in the making."
Former military intelligence analyst Michael Wriston warned that the techniques could identify people connected to immigration targets even when those individuals are not themselves suspected of violations.
"Not just necessarily sitting members of Congress, but anyone, and especially members of the immigrant community," Wriston said. The proposal follows earlier disclosures about ICE's use of personal information.
The proposal comes amid disclosures about ICE's existing surveillance and data-sharing practices, including the collection of information about people who were not immigration enforcement targets.
In October, WIRED reported that federal agents investigating people who observed immigration raids in Maine had entered photographs, license plates and other personal information into ICE's Investigative Case Management system, built using Palantir software. According to court filings, an agent labeled two observers "Threat to Law Enforcement, Professional Protestor" and forwarded photographs for facial recognition searches.
The filings also allege that an agent used a commercial database to obtain one observer's address, telephone numbers and information about people living with her. Four observers seeking class-action status accuse DHS of retaliating against people monitoring immigration operations. DHS called the lawsuit meritless, denied maintaining a database of domestic terrorists and said the incidents were isolated and contrary to department policy.
A separate dispute over Medicaid records in July also raised questions about ICE's handling of information obtained from other government agencies. According to court filings reported by NPR, federal health officials improperly transferred records covering millions of people, including U.S. citizens and lawfully present immigrants, to immigration authorities.
ICE subsequently shared the information with Palantir, whose ELITE platform helps agents identify potential deportation targets, addresses and associated individuals.
Palantir said it had purged the dataset at the government's direction, but federal officials later acknowledged that copies remained with multiple ICE users and that the information had been mistakenly shared again. U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria temporarily restricted further Medicaid data sharing for immigration enforcement.
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