ICE's $85 Billion Surveillance Arsenal

Every tool. How they connect. What they know about you.

TL;DR: The One Big Beautiful Bill Act made ICE the highest-funded law enforcement agency in America with $85 billion. That money bought an interconnected surveillance machine: Palantir ELITE assigns "confidence scores" to deportation targets using Medicaid data. Mobile Fortify scans faces against 1.2 billion photos. Zignal Labs monitors 8 billion social media posts daily. BI2 iris scanners match eyes against 5 million records. Cell-site simulators track phones in real time. Drones identify people from 7.5 miles away. These aren't separate tools: they feed into each other, creating the most comprehensive targeting system ever deployed against any population in America.

The Budget That Built a Surveillance State

ICE's transformation happened in July 2025, when the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed [1]. The numbers:

$85 Billion

Total ICE funding: more than the FBI, DEA, ATF, and Secret Service combined

$1.4 Billion

Spent on surveillance contracts in September 2025 alone: highest single month in 18 years

10x Historical

More than ICE spent on surveillance tech in the previous 13 years combined

100,000

Target detention bed capacity: up from 40,000

In January 2026, federal officers showed up with "state-of-the-art surveillance technologies" that hadn't existed six months earlier [2]. Here's what they're using.

The Brain: Palantir ELITE

At the center of everything sits Palantir's ELITE: "Enhanced Leads Identification & Targeting for Enforcement" [3].

An ICE agent described it in a sworn deposition: "It's kind of like Google Maps. You're going to go to a more dense population rather than, like, if there's one pin at a house and the likelihood of them actually living there is like 10 percent, you're not going to go there."

What it does:

  • Shows a map populated with deportation targets as pins
  • Each pin has a dossier: photo, address, date of birth, Alien Registration Number
  • Each address gets a "confidence score" out of 100
  • Agents draw shapes on the map to select "target-rich areas" for raids

Where it gets data:

  • Medicaid records from nearly 80 million patients through a CMS data-sharing agreement
  • DMV files: ICE has driver's license photos of 1 in 3 American adults
  • Utility records covering 3 in 4 American adults
  • Court records, IRS data, passport records

Update your address for medical care? Your confidence score goes up. Apply for benefits for your U.S. citizen child? ICE knows where you live [4].

Contract value: $29.9 million (started September 2025)

The Eyes: Facial Recognition Systems

Mobile Fortify: 1.2 Billion Faces

Point a phone at someone's face. In seconds, check their immigration status against 1.2 billion photos [5].

Built by NEC Corporation using their NeoFace system, Mobile Fortify lets agents in the field identify people instantly. ICE and CBP have used it over 100,000 times since June 2025.

The database includes photos of U.S. citizens photographed at airports. DHS deployed it without completing required Privacy Impact Assessments [6].

Photos are stored for 15 years, even if there's no match.

BI2 Iris Scanners: 5 Million Eyeballs

In January 2026, ICE signed a $4.5 million contract with BI2 Technologies for mobile iris scanning [7].

The systems, MORIS (Mobile Offender Recognition & Identification System) and I.R.I.S. (Inmate Recognition & Identification System), let agents scan someone's iris from 10-15 inches away using a smartphone.

The database: 5 million iris records from 1.5 million people, sourced from 247 law enforcement agencies' booking records.

BI2 originally marketed these to sheriff departments for jail intake. Now they're tracking people in the street.

Clearview AI: 60 Billion Images

ICE's existing contract gives access to Clearview AI's database of 60 billion facial images scraped from social media and the open web [8].

The Ears: Social Media Monitoring

ICE paid $5.7 million to Zignal Labs for a five-year contract starting September 2025 [9].

What it does:

  • Analyzes 8 billion social media posts daily across 100+ languages
  • Uses machine learning, computer vision, and optical character recognition
  • Traces exact locations from TikTok video metadata
  • Identifies people from patches and emblems in photos
  • Creates "curated detection feeds": automated target lists for deportation

ICE is hiring 30 workers, 12 in Vermont, 16 in California, to monitor Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, and YouTube around the clock [10].

Will Owen from the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project called it "an assault on democracy and free speech, powered by the algorithm and paid for with our tax dollars."

Location Tracking: Phones, Plates, and Purchases

Cell-Site Simulators (Stingrays)

ICE paid $825,000 in May 2025 for vehicles equipped with cell-site simulators [11].

These devices, often called Stingrays, pose as cell towers. Your phone connects to them, revealing your real-time location.

ICE deployed cell-site simulators at least 466 times between 2017-2019, and 1,885+ times between 2013-2017. A 2023 DHS Inspector General report found ICE agents "repeatedly disregarded the law" requiring warrants [12].

ICE guidelines include broad "emergency exceptions": protecting human life, pursuing a fleeing felon, preventing escape. Critics say these exceptions swallow the warrant requirement.

License Plate Readers

ICE renewed its contract with Thomson Reuters' database in fall 2025: 20 billion plate scans, including data from private surveillance video feeds [2].

ICE also ordered mobile license plate readers from Motorola Solutions. Combined with Flock Safety's national network, ICE can track where any vehicle has been.

Commercial Location Data

Through data brokers like Venntel and Gravy Analytics, ICE buys location data from millions of phone apps: weather apps, games, prayer apps [13].

No warrant required. Just a purchase order. The data shows where you've been, who you've been near, what buildings you've entered.

The Drones

In fall 2025, ICE signed a $514,000 contract for new drones, including the Skydio X10D [14].

Capabilities:

  • Detect individuals from 7.5 miles away
  • Identify specific people from 0.8 miles
  • Create roving no-fly zones during operations

DHS also established a new Drone Office with $1.5 billion in funding [15]. Immigration enforcement is becoming aerial surveillance.

Phone Hacking and Spyware

Cellebrite and Graykey

ICE maintains contracts with Cellebrite and Magnet Forensics (Graykey) for mobile device extraction [16].

These tools crack encrypted phones, iPhones, Androids, any device, and extract complete data: messages, photos, location history, app data, deleted content.

Paragon Graphite Spyware

ICE uses Paragon Solutions' Graphite spyware, which can compromise phones remotely [17].

Unlike Cellebrite (which requires physical access), Graphite infects devices over the air. Once compromised, the phone becomes a surveillance device: microphone, camera, location, all accessible.

How It All Connects

These aren't separate tools. They're an integrated system:

  1. Zignal Labs monitors social media and flags a target based on posting patterns
  2. Palantir ELITE pulls their address from Medicaid/utility records and assigns a confidence score
  3. License plate readers confirm they still drive to that address
  4. Location data from apps confirms they sleep there nightly
  5. Agents deploy with Mobile Fortify facial recognition to confirm identity on sight
  6. After arrest, iris scanners add them to BI2's database for future identification
  7. Cellebrite extracts their phone, adding contacts to the target list

Each system feeds the others. Every arrest generates more data. The network grows with every operation.

Who Gets Swept Up

The surveillance net isn't precision-targeted. It catches everyone nearby [18]:

  • U.S. citizens: Cell-site simulators capture every phone in range. Facial recognition databases include airport photos of Americans.
  • Mixed-status families: Citizen children's addresses are in Medicaid records linked to non-citizen parents.
  • Journalists: Those covering immigration get tracked through their sources.
  • Protesters: The Washington Post documented ICE using these tools to track people at demonstrations [2].
  • Anyone in the neighborhood: "Target-rich areas" mean whole communities face raids based on algorithm output.

The Companies Profiting

Palantir

$60+ million from ICE in 2025-2026 alone. ELITE and ImmigrationOS contracts.

NEC Corporation

Mobile Fortify facial recognition. 1.2 billion face database.

Zignal Labs

$5.7 million for social media surveillance across 8 billion daily posts.

BI2 Technologies

$4.5 million for iris scanning 5 million records.

Clearview AI

60 billion scraped facial images.

Thomson Reuters

20 billion license plate scans.

Cellebrite/Magnet

Phone cracking and extraction.

Paragon Solutions

Graphite spyware for remote phone compromise.

Protecting Yourself

Limit Data Exposure

Audit app permissions. Delete apps that track location unnecessarily. Use Signal instead of SMS. Every data point feeds the machine.

Use Privacy Tools

VPN for browsing. Faraday bags when needed. Disable Bluetooth and WiFi when not in use. See our phone privacy guide.

Know Your Rights

You can refuse to unlock your phone. You can remain silent. You can ask if you're free to go. See our ICE encounter guide.

Support Legislation

Push for laws banning government purchase of commercial data. Support the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act and state data broker restrictions.

The Bottom Line

ICE built the most comprehensive surveillance system ever deployed against any population in America.

It tracks your face against 1.2 billion photos. Your eyes against 5 million iris scans. Your posts across 8 billion daily social media updates. Your car through 20 billion license plate scans. Your phone through cell-site simulators and location data brokers. Your address through Medicaid and utility records.

All of it feeds into Palantir ELITE, which assigns you a confidence score and drops a pin on a map.

This infrastructure doesn't stay limited to immigration enforcement. Surveillance tools built for one purpose get repurposed. The database of 1.2 billion faces includes U.S. citizens. The social media monitoring catches everyone who posts. The cell-site simulators grab every phone in range.

$85 billion bought a surveillance machine. It's running. And it's watching.

References

  1. LAist - How ICE Grew to Be the Highest-Funded US Law Enforcement Agency (2026)
  2. Washington Post - The Powerful Tools in ICE's Arsenal to Track Suspects and Protesters (February 2026)
  3. 404 Media - ELITE: The Palantir App ICE Uses to Find Neighborhoods to Raid (January 2026)
  4. EFF - Report: ICE Using Palantir Tool That Feeds On Medicaid Data (January 2026)
  5. Bloomberg - DHS Face-Scanning App Pulls From 1.2 Billion-Image Database (February 2026)
  6. Winbuzzer - DHS Deployed ICE Facial Recognition Without Privacy Assessments (February 2026)
  7. Boston Globe - ICE Ups Investment in Surveillance Technology With $4.5M Contract (January 2026)
  8. State of Surveillance - Clearview AI ICE Contract: 60 Billion Faces (2025)
  9. Truthout - ICE Just Spent Millions on a Social Media Surveillance AI Program (2025)
  10. The Conversation - Always Watching: How ICE's Plan to Monitor Social Media 24/7 Threatens Privacy (2025)
  11. TechCrunch - ICE Bought Vehicles Equipped With Fake Cell Towers to Spy on Phones (October 2025)
  12. TechCrunch - Secret Service and ICE Conducted Warrantless Stingray Surveillance (2023)
  13. State of Surveillance - ICE Ad-Tech Location Data Surveillance (2026)
  14. DroneXL - ICE's $85 Billion Surveillance Machine Includes Skydio Drones (February 2026)
  15. State of Surveillance - DHS Drone Office: $1.5 Billion for ICE Surveillance (2026)
  16. State of Surveillance - ICE Cellebrite and Graykey Phone Hacking Contracts
  17. State of Surveillance - Paragon Graphite Spyware and ICE (2026)
  18. American Immigration Council - Mission Creep: AI Surveillance at DHS Crosses Dangerous Line (2026)
  19. Rep. Jayapal - ICE Out of Our Faces Act Introduced (February 2026)
  20. State of Surveillance - Minnesota Sues DHS and ICE (2026)