Apps and ankle monitors track asylum seekers in real time wherever they go. Databases are packed with personal information like fingerprints and faces. Investigative tools can break into locked phones and search through gigabytes of emails, text messages and other files. They are part of a technology arsenal available to President Trump as he aims to crack down on illegal immigration and carry out the largest deportation operation in history, His administration can tap a stockpile of tools nearly unmatched in the Western world, reports the New York Times. A review of nearly 15,000 contracts shows that Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Citizen and Immigration Services have spent $7.8 billion on immigration technologies from 263 companies since 2020. The contracts, most signed by the Biden administration, included ones for tools that can rapidly prove family relationships with a DNA test to check whether an adult migrant crossing the border with a minor are related. Other systems compare biometrics against criminal records, alert agents to changes in address, follow cars with license plate readers, and rip and data from phones, hard drives and cars.
The contracts were for mundane tech like phone services as well as advanced tools from big and small companies. Palantir, a provider of data-analysis tools co-founded by billionaire Peter Thiel, received more than $1 billion over the past four years. Venntel, a provider of location data, had seven contracts with ICE totaling at least $330,000 between 2018 and 2022. The Biden administration used these technologies for immigration enforcement, including in investigations of drug trafficking, human smuggling and transnational gang activity. “All illegal entry will immediately be halted and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came,” Trump said at his inauguration. The buildup of immigration tech goes back to the creation of the Homeland Security Department after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Interest in the tools fueled a boom that is expected to grow under Trump. Foreign leaders are also investing in the technologies as some adopt increasingly restrictive immigration policies.