User Guide for Palantir ELITE Tool That Helps ICE Plan Raids Published
Document reveals how immigration agents use address confidence scores and government data to target neighborhoods
The guide shows that ELITE aggregates data from the Department of Health and Human Services and other agencies to help ICE determine where individuals are likely to be located. Agents can view confidence scores for addresses, helping prioritize which locations to target for enforcement operations.
The publication comes amid dramatically escalating immigration enforcement under the Trump administration, with ICE conducting high-profile raids that have drawn both support from enforcement advocates and condemnation from civil liberties groups. Critics have argued that tools like ELITE enable indiscriminate enforcement that affects entire communities.
Senator Ron Wyden previously stated that the app proves the completely indiscriminate nature of the agency aggressive and violent incursions into our communities. Palantir role in immigration enforcement has been controversial since the company first began working with ICE.
404 Media obtained the guide through sources and retyped it for publication to protect those sources, while reconstructing some of the images from the original document.
Analysis
Why This Matters
The document provides unprecedented detail about how technology companies enable immigration enforcement, raising questions about data privacy and the tools available to federal agents.
Background
Palantir has faced years of criticism for its work with ICE. The company has defended the contracts while some employees and investors have called for ending immigration enforcement work.
What to Watch
How Congress responds to revelations about ELITE capabilities, and whether the document release prompts further scrutiny of government data-sharing practices used in immigration enforcement.