Power Grab/Fire anyone who can stop him
Palantir dropped its first-term refusal to work with ICE’s deportation arm
The Washington Post reported on December 3, 2025 that the company now builds for Enforcement and Removal Operations, the unit that detains and deports people.
What happened
On December 3, 2025, the Washington Post reported that Palantir had reversed its limit on working with ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations. During Trump’s first term the company said it worked only with Homeland Security Investigations, citing human-rights risks. Palantir has supplied data software to ICE since 2014.
ICE awarded Palantir a $30 million contract on April 11, 2025 to build ImmigrationOS. The system prioritizes targets for apprehension and tracks self-deportations in near real time. An internal Palantir communication obtained by 404 Media told staff the company “must expand our aperture” into ERO to support ICE’s enforcement mission.
In a July 2025 letter to Amnesty International, Palantir wrote that it “is not an oversight authority entrusted with scrutinizing or questioning executive branch actors.” The shift prompted some employee resignations. These details are as reported by the Post and 404 Media.
Who benefited
ICE and the White House gained a contractor willing to build the targeting and case-tracking layer for mass removals. Palantir’s federal contracts grew with the deportation campaign. Its co-founder Peter Thiel and CEO Alex Karp are close to administration figures.
Who wanted something
Stephen Miller and ICE leadership wanted data tools to hit arrest and removal targets. Palantir’s leadership chose to drop its earlier line. The company’s statement framed the reversal as deference to the executive branch rather than a change of view.
Who lost out
Immigrants and mixed-status families have their records fused into deportation-targeting systems. Palantir employees who had relied on the company’s earlier limit lost it, and some resigned.
Why it matters
A major data contractor abandoned the one restraint it had set for itself and said that scrutinizing government action is not its job. It did so while the government’s deportation data systems were being unified.
Sources Washington Post (syndicated by the Philadelphia Inquirer)Washington PostAxios DenverNYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights