ICE doesn't announce their surveillance purchases. Senators Markey, Wyden, and Merkley had to drag details out through oversight letters [1]. DHS keeps "forgetting" to respond.
ICE doesn't announce their surveillance purchases. Senators Markey, Wyden, and Merkley had to drag details out through oversight letters [1]. DHS keeps "forgetting" to respond.
Here's what we know they're using as of November 2025. Real vendors. Real capabilities. Real contracts.
This is their shopping list for hunting humans.
## Mobile Biometric Scanners
### SEEK II (Secure Electronic Enrollment Kit)
**Vendor:** CrossMatch (now HID Global)
**Cost:** $3,500 per unit
**Deployed:** 2,000+ units field-wide
**Capabilities:**
- Fingerprint scanning (10 prints in 15 seconds)
- Iris scanning (both eyes)
- Facial recognition
- Real-time database matching
- Works offline, syncs later
**Database Access:**
- DHS IDENT (260 million records)
- FBI NGI (criminal database)
- DoD ABIS (military biometrics)
Field agents carry these. Point at face. Get identity in seconds.
### Mobile Identify App
**Vendor:** DataWorks Plus
**Cost:** $2.8 million annual license
**Users:** All ICE/CBP field agents
**What it does:**
- Take photo with phone
- Matches against multiple databases
- Returns identity and immigration status
- Shows criminal history
- Lists known associates
**Accuracy:** Claims 99.5% but higher error rates for Black and Latino faces. ICE doesn't care.
### Mobile Fortify
**Vendor:** Integrated with multiple biometric databases
**Integration:** Clearview AI ($3.75 million contract, September 2025) [2]
**Status:** Active, videos show agents using at protests [3]
**Capabilities:**
- Real-time facial recognition via smartphone
- No consent required for scanning
- Photos stored 15 years even without match [4]
- Prioritizes app results over citizenship documents [5]
- Links to social media profiles
Civil rights groups document ICE agents pointing phones at protesters. When senators demanded answers in November 2025, ICE went silent [6].
## Phone and Communication Surveillance
### Paragon Solutions Graphite
**Vendor:** Paragon (Israeli spyware company)
**Cost:** $2 million contract (September 2024) [7]
**Capability:** Zero-click phone hacking
**What they can grab:**
- Real-time location
- All messages (including encrypted)
- Photos and videos
- Contacts
- Call logs
- Microphone activation
- Camera activation
**How it works:** Exploits zero-day vulnerabilities. No user interaction needed. You won't know it's there.
### Stingray/Crossbow/Hailstorm
**Vendors:** Harris Corporation, Digital Receiver Technology
**Cost:** $500,000+ per unit
**Deployment:** Major cities, border areas
**Technical specs:**
- Mimics cell tower
- Forces connection downgrade
- Captures all phones in area
- Tracks real-time movement
- Intercepts calls and texts
ICE won't confirm how many they have. FOIA requests get rejected for "security reasons."
### Babel X (Now Babel Street)
**Cost:** $3.6 million contract
**Purpose:** Social media surveillance
**Monitors:**
- Public social media posts
- Dark web forums
- Foreign language sites
- Geo-located posts
- Sentiment analysis
Creates "pattern of life" profiles. Your Instagram vacation photos become deportation evidence.
## Social Media and Internet Monitoring
### Zignal Labs Platform
**Cost:** Multimillion (exact amount redacted)
**Scale:** 8 billion posts daily
**Data sources:**
- Facebook
- Twitter/X
- TikTok
- Instagram
- Reddit
- News sites
- Blogs
- Forums
**Analysis capabilities:**
- Real-time alerts
- Network mapping
- Influencer identification
- Predictive analytics
- Automated dossier creation
They're not just watching. They're predicting.
### Palantir ImmigrationOS and ICM
**Cost:** $30 million for ImmigrationOS (April 2025) [8], $95.9 million ICM contract (2022) [9]
**Purpose:** Data fusion and deportation management platform
**Integrates:**
- All ICE databases
- State DMV records
- Utility bills
- Credit reports
- Phone records
- Travel records
- Financial data
- Medical records (when accessible)
The digital panopticon. Everything about you in one search.
## Location and Movement Tracking
### Thomson Reuters CLEAR
**Cost:** $22 million contract
**Users:** 7,000+ ICE employees
**Provides:**
- Real-time address updates
- Utility connection records
- Phone number changes
- Vehicle registrations
- Criminal records
- Court records
- Property records
- Associate networks
Updated hourly. You move, they know.
### Venntel Location Data
**Vendor:** Venntel (Gravy Analytics subsidiary)
**Cost:** Undisclosed
**Source:** App advertising data
**Tracking method:**
- Buys location from apps
- No warrant required
- Accurate to 5 meters
- Historical data available
- Pattern analysis
That free weather app? It's selling your location to ICE.
### License Plate Readers
**Vendor:** Vigilant Solutions (Motorola)
**Database:** 10+ billion plate scans
**Cost:** $20,000 per camera + fees
**Coverage:**
- Fixed cameras nationwide
- Mobile units on vehicles
- Parking lots
- Gas stations
- Major intersections
Every drive logged. Forever.
## Biometric Databases
### HART (Homeland Advanced Recognition Technology)
**Status:** Fully operational 2025
**Records:** 260+ million identities
**Growth:** 10 million additions yearly
**Contains:**
- Face images
- Fingerprints
- Iris scans
- DNA profiles (new)
- Voice prints
- Scars/marks/tattoos
- Gang affiliations
Shared with Five Eyes countries. No oversight. No deletion.
### EID (Enforcement Integrated Database)
**Records:** 175 million+
**Updates:** Real-time
**Tracks:**
- All border crossings
- Immigration applications
- Criminal arrests
- Court appearances
- Deportations
- Family relationships
One database to rule them all.
## Predictive Analytics
### Giant Oak GOST (Government Operations Support Tool)
**Cost:** $10 million contract
**Purpose:** Risk scoring
**Analyzes:**
- Social media posts
- Financial transactions
- Travel patterns
- Associates
- Public records
**Output:** Deportation priority score
The algorithm decides who gets raided first.
### Cobwebs Technologies
**Cost:** $2.2 million
**Focus:** Dark web monitoring
**Capabilities:**
- Fake identity creation
- Infiltration of groups
- Automated monitoring
- Translation services
- Cryptocurrency tracking
They're not just watching the surface web.
## The Integration Problem
These aren't separate systems. They talk to each other.
**Example workflow:**
1. License plate reader spots your car
2. CLEAR provides current address
3. Venntel confirms you're home
4. Palantir builds target package
5. Giant Oak assigns priority score
6. Raid team gets mobile devices
7. SEEK II confirms identity at door
Automated oppression at scale.
## The Money Trail
**Total known contracts:** $200+ million annually
**Hidden in budgets:** Classified amounts
**State/local sharing:** Billions more
**Major contractors:**
- Palantir: $30+ million
- Thomson Reuters: $22 million
- Clearview AI: $9.2 million
- Motorola: $20+ million
- CrossMatch/HID: $10+ million
Your tax dollars at work.
## What They Won't Admit
### Accuracy Problems
**Facial recognition error rates:**
- White men: 0.8%
- White women: 7%
- Black men: 35%
- Black women: 35%
ICE response: "Acceptable margins."
### Warrant Avoidance
**Their workarounds:**
- Buy data instead of seizing
- Use administrative subpoenas
- Claim "border exception"
- Share through fusion centers
- Parallel construction
The Fourth Amendment is dead at the border.
### Data Retention
**Official policy:** Varies by system
**Reality:** Forever
Deletions don't happen. Backups exist everywhere. Shared data lives on.
## The Expansion Pipeline
### Coming Soon
**In testing/deployment:**
- Gait recognition systems
- Heartbeat detection (through walls)
- Mass DNA collection
- Satellite surveillance integration
- Quantum computing for encryption breaking
**Vendors courting ICE:**
- Anduril (AI drones)
- Shield AI (autonomous surveillance)
- Evolv (weapon detection)
- Athena Security (gun detection AI)
The arsenal only grows.
## Defense Strategies
### Technical Countermeasures
**Against facial recognition:**
- Never post photos online
- Disable photo backup
- Use masks consistently
- Avoid surveillance zones
**Against phone tracking:**
- Faraday bags
- Airplane mode isn't enough
- Burner phones with cash SIMs
- Never cross-contaminate identities
**Against data brokers:**
- Opt-out where possible
- False information for non-critical services
- Multiple identities for different purposes
- Cash transactions
### Legal Protections
**Your rights:**
- Don't open door without warrant
- Don't answer questions
- Don't unlock devices
- Don't consent to searches
**Get help:**
- Immigration lawyers
- ACLU rapid response
- Know your rights trainings
- Community warning networks
## The Uncomfortable Reality
This is a partial list. The classified tools are worse.
Every year they add more vendors. More capabilities. More integration. The Trump administration wants 1 million deportations annually. This tech makes it possible.
They're not watching everyone all the time. Yet. But they can watch anyone, anytime, and build your entire life in minutes.
## What You Can Do
### Individual Actions
1. **Minimize digital footprint**
2. **Use cash when possible**
3. **Encrypt everything**
4. **Compartmentalize identities**
5. **Support targeted communities**
### Collective Resistance
1. **Demand oversight hearings**
2. **Support privacy legislation**
3. **Fund legal challenges**
4. **Build mutual aid networks**
5. **Document abuses**
### Political Pressure
Contact your representatives about:
- ICE surveillance contracts
- Warrant requirements
- Data broker regulations
- Facial recognition bans
- Immigration reform
## The Bottom Line
ICE has built a digital dragnet that would make the Stasi jealous. No warrant needed. No oversight provided. No limits enforced.
They're using Silicon Valley's tools for mass deportation. Every app, every camera, every database is potential ammunition.
This isn't coming. It's here. It's operational. It's expanding.
The question isn't whether you're in their system. You are.
The question is what you're going to do about it.
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## References
[1] Senators Markey, Wyden, and Merkley Letter to ICE on Mobile Facial Recognition, November 3, 2025
[2] ICE-Clearview AI Contract Award, September 5, 2025, Federal Contracting Database
[3] "Videos show ICE agents aiming phones at protesters," EFF Report, November 2025
[4] DHS Mobile Fortify Privacy Impact Assessment, obtained via FOIA, 2025
[5] "ICE prioritizes app results over citizenship documents," Civil Rights Coalition Letter, November 2025
[6] Follow-up Letter to ICE on Facial Recognition Technology, Senator Markey, November 3, 2025
[7] ICE-Paragon Solutions Contract, September 2024, USASpending.gov
[8] Palantir ImmigrationOS Contract Award, April 2025, Contract ID: 70CTD022FR0000170
[9] Palantir ICM System Contract, 2022, $95.9 million multi-year award
[10] BI2 Technologies Iris Scanning Contract, September 23, 2025, $4.6 million
[11] LexisNexis Contract Renewal, 2025, $4.7 million annual subscription
[12] Thomson Reuters CLEAR Contract, DHS, $22.8 million through 2026