34 Members of Congress Say

Palantir Is Being Used to Build a Mass Surveillance Ecosystem

Thom Hartman

Thirty-four members of Congress sent a letter Thursday to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin and acting ICE director Todd Lyons demanding answers about how the administration is using surveillance technology to power its immigration crackdown, including tools built by Palantir, Clearview AI, PenLink, L3Harris, and Paragon Solutions.

The letter states that this suite of tools could be used to “compile, aggregate, and analyze large volumes of personal data and information” about Americans. It demands a response by April 24.

The lawmakers asked specifically about a Palantir-built app called ELITE, short for Enhanced Leads Identification and Targeting for Enforcement, requesting a full accounting of its purpose, its data categories, and how many DHS officials have access to it. Palantir also built ICE’s core law enforcement case management system and the Immigration Lifecycle Operating System, which agents use to select deportation cases and track who has been removed.

Congressman Dan Goldman, a lead author of the letter, said the administration has “weaponized” Palantir technology to power its “inhumane mass deportation agenda” and to “surveil American citizens.” The lawmakers also asked whether DHS collects data on people who are “peacefully observing, documenting or protesting immigration enforcement operations,” citing cases in which facial recognition was used to identify U.S. citizens who encountered ICE agents.

Every generation of Americans has had to decide whether to let the government watch everyone all the time. The Church Committee warned us back in the seventies what happens when surveillance tools built to chase foreign threats get turned on citizens at home. Now Peter Thiel’s company is building that same infrastructure on a scale J. Edgar Hoover couldn’t have dreamed of, and they’re renting it to an administration that has openly threatened its political enemies and declared protesters enemies of the state. The Fourth Amendment wasn’t written for comfortable times. It was written for exactly this moment.

Palantir’s government revenue nearly doubled in fiscal year 2025, hitting approximately $1 billion. Its business has exploded since Trump’s second term began. The company’s founder has been closely allied with the administration. And the congressional letter demanding transparency has, so far, received no substantive public response.