The Department of Homeland Security struck a $1 billion purchasing agreement with Palantir last week, further reinforcing the software company’s role in the federal agency that oversees the nation’s immigration enforcement.
According to contracting documents published last week, the blanket purchase agreement (BPA) awarded “is to provide Palantir commercial software licenses, maintenance, and implementation services department wide.” The agreement simplifies how DHS buys software from Palantir, allowing DHS agencies like Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to essentially skip the competitive bidding process for new purchases of up to $1 billion in products and services from the company.
Palantir did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Palantir announced the agreement internally on Friday. It comes as the company is struggling to address growing tensions among staff over its relationship with DHS and ICE. After Minneapolis nurse Alex Pretti was shot and killed in January, Palantir staffers flooded company Slack channels demanding information on how the tech they build empowers US immigration enforcement. Since then, the company has updated its internal wiki, offering few unreported details about its work with ICE, and Palantir CEO Alex Karp recorded a video for employees where he attempted to justify the company’s immigration work, as WIRED reported last week. Throughout a nearly hourlong conversation with Courtney Bowman, Palantir’s global director of privacy and civil liberties engineering, Karp failed to address direct questions about how the company’s tech powers ICE. Instead, he said workers could sign nondisclosure agreements for more detailed information.
Akash Jain, Palantir’s chief technology officer and president of Palantir US government partners, which works with US government agencies, acknowledged these concerns in the email announcing the company’s new agreement with DHS. “I recognize that this comes at a time of increased concern, both externally and internally, around our existing work with ICE,” Jain wrote. “While we don’t normally send out updates on new contract vehicles, in this moment it felt especially important to provide context to help inform your understanding of what this means – and what it doesn’t. There will be opportunities we run toward, and others we decline – that discipline is part of what has earned us DHS’s trust.”
In the Friday email, Jain suggests that the five-year agreement could allow the company to expand its reach across DHS into agencies like the US Secret Service (USSS), Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA), Transportation Security Administration (TSA), and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).
Jain also argued that Palantir’s software could strengthen protections for US citizens. “These protections help enable accountability through strict controls and auditing capabilities, and support adherence to constitutional protections, especially the Fourth Amendment,” Jain wrote. (Palantir’s critics have argued that the company’s tools create a massive surveillance dragnet, which could ultimately harm civil liberties.)
Over the last year, Palantir’s work with ICE has grown tremendously. Last April, WIRED reported that ICE paid Palantir $30 million to build “ImmigrationOS,” which would provide “near real-time visibility” on immigrants self-deporting from the US. Since then, it’s been reported that the company has also developed a new tool called Enhanced Leads Identification & Targeting for Enforcement (ELITE) which creates maps of potential deportation targets, pulling data from DHS and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Closing his Friday email to staff, Jain suggested that staffers curious about the new DHS agreement come work on it themselves. “As Palantirians, the best way to understand the work is to engage on the work directly. If you are interested in helping shape and deliver the next chapter of Palantir’s work across DHS, please reach out,” Jain wrote to employees, who are sometimes referred to internally as fictional creatures from The Lord of the Rings. “There will be a massive need for committed hobbits to turn this momentum into mission outcomes.”
