The Technology Driving ICE’s Deportation Initiatives

In the previous presidential election cycle, President Donald Trump prioritized immigration control, promising an unprecedented number of deportations.

In his initial eight months in office, this pledge led to around 350,000 deportations. This figure encompasses actions taken by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) (approximately 200,000), Customs and Border Protection (over 132,000), and nearly 18,000 self-deportations, according to CNN.

ICE has been at the forefront of Trump’s mass deportation efforts, executing raids in homes, workplaces, and public spaces to detain undocumented immigrants. To support these activities, ICE utilizes various technologies aimed at tracking and surveilling individuals and communities.

Below is a summary of some of the technologies featured in ICE’s digital toolkit.

Cell-site Simulator Devices

ICE employs a technology known as cell-site simulators for cell phone surveillance. These devices operate by mimicking cellphone towers to entice nearby phones to connect. Once linked, law enforcement can track and identify the connected phones, potentially intercepting calls, messages, and internet traffic.

Commonly referred to as “stingrays” (based on a well-known brand by U.S. defense contractor Harris, now L3Harris) or IMSI catchers, these simulators can capture unique identifiers from nearby cell phones, allowing authorities to identify the phone owners.

In the past two years, ICE has contracted TechOps Specialty Vehicles (TOSV) for over $1.5 million to design specialized vans for law enforcement. A contract dated May 8, 2025, with a value exceeding $800,000, mandates that TOSV supply “Cell Site Simulator (CSS) Vehicles to support the Homeland Security Technical Operations program.”

TOSV president Jon Brianas conveyed to TechCrunch that although the company does not manufacture the cell-site simulators, they integrate them into their vehicle designs.

The use of cell-site simulators has sparked significant debate.

These devices intentionally compel all nearby phones to connect, resulting in data collection from many innocent individuals. Moreover, there have been instances where authorities deployed this technology without obtaining the requisite warrants.

Authorities have sought to protect their use of this technology in legal settings, often withholding information and opting for plea deals instead of disclosing details about the use of cell-site simulators. In a 2019 case in Baltimore, it was revealed that prosecutors were ordered to drop cases rather than violate a non-disclosure agreement with the device manufacturer.

Clearview AI Facial Recognition

Clearview AI has emerged as a significant force in facial recognition technology, claiming the ability to identify any individual through its vast database of images sourced from the internet.

On a recent Monday, 404 Media reported that ICE had entered into a contract with Clearview AI to assist its law enforcement division, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), “with capabilities for identifying victims and perpetrators in child sexual exploitation cases and assaults against law enforcement personnel.”

According to government procurement documents, the latest contract is valued at $3.75 million.

ICE had previously collaborated with Clearview AI over the past couple of years, purchasing “forensic software” in September 2024 for $1.1 million. The year before, ICE spent nearly $800,000 for “facial recognition enterprise licenses.”

Clearview AI did not provide a comment when requested.

Paragon Phone Spyware

In September 2024, ICE secured a $2 million contract with Israeli spyware producer Paragon Solutions. Soon after, the Biden administration issued a “stop work order,” launching a review of the contract to ensure compliance with an executive order regarding the government’s use of commercial spyware.

As a result of this order, the contract remained in limbo for nearly a year until the Trump administration lifted the stop work order, effectively reinstating the agreement.

Currently, the exact nature of Paragon’s engagement with ICE remains ambiguous.

Recent records indicate that the Paragon contract involves “a fully configured proprietary solution including license, hardware, warranty, maintenance, and training.” Unless installation and training took place last year, it may take some time before ICE can fully implement Paragon’s system.

It remains unclear whether ICE or HSI will utilize the spyware, as HSI investigates issues beyond immigration, including online child exploitation, human trafficking, financial fraud, and more.

Paragon has touted itself as an “ethical” spyware manufacturer but now faces the ethical dilemma of collaborating with Trump’s ICE. Recent developments have seen American private equity giant AE Industrial acquiring Paragon, with plans to merge it with cybersecurity firm RedLattice, as reported by Israeli tech outlet Calcalist.

When inquiring about comments on the reactivation of the ICE contract, TechCrunch was directed to RedLattice’s new VP of marketing and communications, Jennifer Iras.

Iras did not provide a response for this article or previous inquiries.

In recent months, Paragon has faced a spyware scandal in Italy, where allegations arose concerning government surveillance of journalists and immigration activists. In reaction, Paragon severed ties with Italian intelligence agencies.

Phone Hacking and Unlocking Technology

In mid-September, ICE’s law enforcement division, HSI, signed a $3 million contract with Magnet Forensics.

This contract covers software licenses that enable HSI agents to “recover digital evidence, process multiple devices,” and “generate forensic reports,” as specified in the contract details.

Magnet manufactures phone hacking and unlocking tools known as Graykey. These devices allow law enforcement personnel to connect locked phones, unlock them, and access their stored data.

Magnet Forensics, which merged with Graykey developers Grayshift in 2023, has not responded to a request for comment.

Cellphone Location Data

At the close of September, 404 Media reported that ICE gained access to an “all-in-one” surveillance tool, enabling the agency to sift through historical cellphone location data as well as social media content.

This tool appears to comprise two products named Tangles and Webloc, produced by a firm called Penlink. One of these tools claims to utilize “a proprietary data platform to compile, process, and validate billions of daily location signals from hundreds of millions of mobile devices, providing both forensic and predictive analytics,” according to a redacted contract discovered by 404 Media.

The redacted contract does not clarify which tool possesses that capability, but based on its description, it is likely Webloc. Forbes has previously mentioned instances where Webloc can track mobile device trends in specific locations based on collected data.

This type of cellphone location information is collected globally by companies using software development kits (SDKs) embedded in typical smartphone applications or through a real-time advertising process known as real-time bidding (RTB). This bidding method allows companies to bid in real-time to display ads based on user demographics or location data, inadvertently granting ad tech firms access to personal information.

Once compiled, this extensive location data is sold to government agencies by data brokers. Consequently, authorities can leverage this information without securing a warrant, merely by purchasing access.

The second tool, Tangles, is characterized as an “AI-powered open-source intelligence” tool that automates the assessment and analysis of data from accessible, deep, and dark web resources, according to Penlink’s official website.

Forbes reported in September that ICE allocated $5 million toward Penlink’s two tools.

Penlink did not respond to a request for comment.

LexisNexis’ Legal and Public Records Databases

For years, ICE has utilized data from the legal research and public records provider LexisNexis to enhance its investigations.

In 2022, two non-profits acquired documents through Freedom of Information Act requests revealing that ICE conducted over 1.2 million searches within a seven-month timeframe using a tool named Accurint Virtual Crime Center, mainly to investigate background information on migrants.

One year later, The Intercept revealed that ICE had been using LexisNexis to detect suspicious behavior and initiate investigations on migrants even before any crimes were committed, a program criticized as “mass surveillance.”

Public records show that LexisNexis currently provides ICE with a law enforcement investigative database subscription (LEIDS), granting access to public records and commercial data to support criminal inquiries.

This year, ICE has spent $4.7 million on this subscription service.

LexisNexis spokesperson Jennifer Richman informed TechCrunch that ICE has leveraged the company’s “data and analytics solutions for decades, across multiple administrations.”

“Our commitment is to foster the responsible and ethical use of data, in full compliance with laws and regulations, to protect all residents of the United States,” Richman added, highlighting that LexisNexis collaborates with over 7,500 federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial agencies in the U.S. to enhance public safety and security.

Surveillance Giant Palantir

Data analytics and surveillance tech company Palantir has secured numerous contracts with ICE over the past year. The largest contract, valued at $18.5 million in September 2024, is for a database system known as “Investigative Case Management,” or ICM.

The ICM contract dates back to 2022, when Palantir entered into a $95.9 million agreement with ICE. The connection between the Peter Thiel-founded company and ICE began in the early 2010s.

Earlier this year, 404 Media, which has closely scrutinized the technology underpinning Trump’s deportation strategies—specifically Palantir’s dealings with ICE—unveiled insights into the operation of the ICM database. The tech outlet reported having obtained a recent version of the database, which enables ICE to filter individuals based on immigration status, physical characteristics, criminal associations, location data, and more.

According to 404 Media, “a source familiar with the database” indicated that it comprises ‘tables upon tables’ of information, generating reports that identify, for instance, individuals on specific visa types who entered through designated ports, arrived from particular countries, and possess specific hair colors (or countless other data points).

The ICM system and Palantir’s collaboration with ICE have raised enough concerns that internal sources leaked an internal wiki to 404 Media justifying Palantir’s partnership with Trump’s ICE.

Palantir is also developing a tool named “ImmigrationOS,” associated with a $30 million contract disclosed by Business Insider.

ImmigrationOS is reportedly designed to streamline the “selection and apprehension operations of illegal aliens,” provide “near real-time visibility” into self-deportations, and monitor individuals overstaying their visas, as outlined in a document initially reported by Wired.

Originally published on September 13 and updated on September 18 to include Magnet Forensics’ new contract and again on October 8 to incorporate cell-site simulators and location data.