A new report sheds light on the unprecedented growth of the US government’s immigration surveillance arsenal, revealing fresh details about how spending on technology and AI tools to find and track migrants has soared to record levels during Donald Trump’s second term.
The report, released this week, analyzed US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) contracts with 11 companies the authors said provide surveillance tech. They found the money awarded to these firms doubled from 2024 to 2025, to just over $310m – and in 2026, that number soared to a record $513m.
Steady increase since 2013
Researchers traced these contracts as far back as 2013, when they hovered under $50m, and found a steady increase over time – with a bigger jump over the last two years. The report notes this new growth is primarily driven by huge new contracts for Palantir, a data analytics company that is central to ICE’s enforcement operations, as well as Anduril, a defense company that has built AI-powered surveillance systems, tech-infused border towers, drones and sensors.
The sweeping analysis, which was produced by immigration rights organization Mijente, legal advocates Just Futures Law and research group Surveillance Resistance Lab, comes as a large influx of money has made ICE the best-funded law enforcement agency in the US, and supercharged immigration agencies’ surveillance ambitions.
Diverse surveillance tools funded
The report highlights how ICE is directing these taxpayer funds towards multimillion-dollar federal contracts for a diverse group of tools and services. They include money for data brokers, analytics software, social media scrapers, facial recognition technologies, hacking devices and spyware to break into phones, external contractors that the study’s authors characterize as “bounty hunters” and “autonomous” border towers and drones.
The report also details how the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE and CBP, doesn’t just buy surveillance products, but also operates a billion-dollar incubator and funds research, programs and partnerships that actively shape the tech that’s created. The authors note that this money has been crucial in “providing early funding for companies that go on to be major surveillance technology providers”.
DHS incubator and SBIR program
These initiatives include the Silicon Valley Innovation Partnership that provides up to $2m to startups for prototyping, and the DHS component of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR), which channels federal money towards technology-focused startups and small businesses, so they can become commercially viable. The program has provided a total of $845m across 500 companies since 2004, according to the study. The Trump administration has awarded money through SBIR in recent years for tools that would allow agents to harvest biometric data from cellphones and use AI to analyze airport CCTV feeds and automatically catalog passengers’ physical characteristics.
Expert concerns and oversight issues
The Guardian spoke with one of the report’s authors, Paromita Shah – executive director of Just Futures Law – about the government’s expansive use of surveillance tech. “I am worried about an agency that has little oversight from Congress and internally receiving what’s essentially a slush fund,” Shah said. “We have seen what CBP and ICE can do with a huge influx of money already – and how many civil rights violations are occurring on the ground.”
Shah also expressed concern about DHS using more than 10 AI-enabled facial recognition tools, including the Mobile Fortify app, which has scanned thousands of immigrants’ and protesters’ faces. “This kind of street-level surveillance raises questions about consent and whether a warrant was obtained,” she said.
Palantir’s central role
The report describes DHS and ICE viewing Palantir’s data management services as integral to their functioning. Shah noted that “it’s troubling that Palantir could have the power to define what counts as lawful and what doesn’t, what is privacy and what is not.” A Palantir spokesperson said in an emailed statement that the company “is not in the business of collecting or storing data, we do not conduct surveillance, and we are not involved in setting immigration policies.”
Other surveillance tools and hidden spending
Shah highlighted less high-profile tools such as Equifax as a key data broker, Berla iVe for extracting data from car-connected devices, VeriWatch for tracking migrants, and Tangles, which uses AI to create dossiers from online presence. “It’s frightening to me that DHS has a drone program,” Shah added. “What does it mean to have a drone floating outside your window and looking into your home v an agent who has to come to your door and ask for permission to come in? It feels dystopian.”
Regarding hidden spending, Shah said, “There’s a lot the government is not sharing with us. I’m absolutely sure we’re missing things and that is the point: we should be worried.”
