Applications and ankle monitoring devices that track asylum seekers in the actual time wherever they go. Databases full of personal information such as fingerprints and faces. Achievement tools can storm closed phones and search via GB of emails, text messages and other files.
These are parts of the technological arsenal available to President Trump while aiming to eliminate illegal immigration and carry out the largest military operation. Deportation Operation in American history. To do this, his administration can take advantage of the inventory of the tools created by Democrats and the Republicans, which are almost unparalleled in the Western world, according to the analysis conducted by the New York Times.
A review of approximately 15,000 contracts shows that two agencies – the Immigration and Customs Administration, citizens and immigration services – spent $ 7.8 billion on immigration technologies from 263 companies since 2020.
The contracts, most of which were concluded under the Biden Administration, included contracts for tools that can quickly prove family relations by testing the DNA to verify whether the adult immigrant crossing the border with a minor, for example, from his relatives. (Families are often treated differently from individuals). There are other systems that compare biological measurements to criminal records, alert customers to changes in addresses, track cars with licensing panel reading devices, copy data from phones, hard drive and cars and analyze them.
The contracts, which ranged in size, were intended for regular technology such as phone services in addition to advanced tools from large and small companies. Palantir, the provider of data analysis tools that the billionaire was established Peter ThilShe has received more than a billion dollars over the past four years. Venntel, providing site data, has seven decades with ICE with a total value of not less than 330 thousand dollars between 2018 and 2022.
The Biden Administration has used many of these technologies to enforce immigration laws, including in investigations related to drug smuggling and human smuggling and gang -crossing gang activities. It is not known how Trump can apply these tools, especially since the whereabouts of many immigrants are known and the government faces a shortage of officers and facilities needed to detain persons.
But Mr. Trump has already made it clear that his migration agenda is remarkably different from his predecessor’s agenda. This week was announced A barrage of executive procedures To close the border and expel immigrants and asylum seekers.
“All illegal entry will be stopped immediately, and we will start the process of returning millions and millions of foreigners criminals to the places they came from,” Trump said in his speech. opening on monday.
It is almost certain that technical products appear in these plans. Thomas Human, Caesar border of the administrationDiscuss the meeting with technology companies about the available tools.
“They will definitely use all the tools available to them, including the new technology available to them,” said John Torres, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for ICE.
A White House spokesman refused to comment. The Immigration and Customs Department said in a statement that it “uses various forms of technology and information to achieve its mission, while protecting privacy, rights and civil freedoms in accordance with the laws in force.”
Eric Hysen, chief information official in the Ministry of Internal Security during the era of President Biden, said that the Immigration and Customs Department and other immigration agencies bears huge responsibilities. He added that many tools are designed for investigations with drug dealers and other criminals, not to track down migrants, while other technologies such as readers of licensing boards can be used to facilitate traffic at border crossings.
Hysen added that the federal government had long -term internal policies to reduce how to use monitoring tools, but these restrictions can be lifted by a new administration. He added: “These are things that can change, but it is not easy to change.”
Create an arsenal
The accumulation of immigration technology is due to the establishment of the Ministry of Internal Security, at least after the September 11, 2001 attacks. Interest in the tools has feed the mutation that is expected to grow during the Trump era. Leaders in Europe and other places are also invested in technologies, as some adopt increasingly restricted immigration policies.
Many companies are racing to meet the demand, as it provides equipment to fortify borders and services to track migrants as soon as they are inside the country.
In the United States, the beneficiaries include the manufacturers of the GPS (GPS) system, digital forensic tools, and data brokers. Palantir and others have won contracts with ICE to store and analyze data. Thomson Reuters and Lexis Nexis and credit rating companies provide access to personal information databases that can help government agents find homes, workplaces and social contacts for citizens and non -citizens alike.
Clarefio Artificial IntelligenceA face to recognize face, has contracts worth approximately $ 9 million, according to government records. SeleberteAn Israeli company to penetrate the phones ICE sold about $ 54 million of investigation tools. The FBI used the famous Cellebrite tools in 2016 to open the iPhone for a collective fire in San Bernardino, California, to help the investigation.
Investors have taken note. The price of the share of Geo Group has doubled, a private prison management company that sells ICE monitoring technology, more than twice since Trump’s victory in the November elections. Cellebrite shares have also multiplied in the past six months, and Palantir shares have increased by approximately 80 percent.
Tom Hogan, temporary CEO of Seleberite, said the company is proud to help “preserve our homeland and our borders are safe through our technology.” Tomson Reuters said in a statement that the agencies are using their technology to support investigations into the exploitation of children, human trafficking, drug trafficking and gang -crossed gang activities. Lexis Nexis, Clearview and Palantir companies did not respond to the suspension requests.
In a phone call with investors in November, Wayne Calpres, CEO of Geo Group, said that the company expects to “take the Trump administration a much more expanded approach to monitoring several million individuals” who were under immigration procedures but were not detained.
He said: “We have confirmed to ICE our ability to expand quickly.”
In a statement of this article, the GEO Group group, based in Boca Ratton, Florida, said it is looking forward to supporting the Trump administration “while moving quickly to achieve its declared plans and goals to secure the country’s borders and enforce its immigration laws.”
Tracking sites
Experts said that one of the technologies that can be used immediately in collective deportations can determine the exact location of the migrants.
About 180,000 illegal immigrants wear an ankle bracelet equipped with a GPS tracking device, or they use an application called Smartlink, which requires them to record their location at least once a day. This technology, made by a company affiliated with the Geo Group group, is used in a program called alternatives to detention. The program started in 2004 and expanded during the Biden administration to include digitizing people instead of being held in detention centers.
The website data collected through the program was used in at least one raid for ICE, according to the court document reviewed by The Times. In August 2019, during the first Trump administration, government agents continued the site of a woman tracked as part of the program. This helped customers to obtain an inspection order for a chicken processing factory in Mississippi, where the raids across the state led to The arrest of about 680 migrants With uncertain legal status.
The Trump administration will likely need to rely on digital monitoring tools because it will be impossible to detain large numbers of individuals physically without legal status.
“While this administration wants to expand the scope of detention, and I think it will find ways to do so, it will take time,” she said. “I think this program will remain important as a way to monitor and control people.”
Data sets
The Trump administration also has access to private databases that contain vital measurements, addresses and criminal records. Agents can obtain service bills records for about three quarters of Americans and driving licenses for a third of Americans, according to the 2022 report. Ticket By Georgetown University.
These tools can be used to track people who are high in the ICE priority list, such as those with a criminal history or people who do not attend listening sessions in the Immigration Court. Investigators can use databases to find a person’s car information, then use the licensing panel readers to locate it.
During the first Trump administration, ICE managed to access the driver’s license data through private companies in states such as Oregon and Washington, even after the state tried to cut access to information about the federal government, according to the Georgetown study.
This information is very important to customers to find people.
He said: “We know that people are giving false addresses.” Agents can use “sharing huge data to trim their sites based on habits.”
This raised concerns related to privacy. Justin Sherman, a distinguished colleague at the Georgetown Technology and Technology Center, said.
During the Biden administration, ICE also bought Babel Street programs, a technology company that collects data from thousands of websites available to the public and other sources. Its services can evaluate people as possible security risks based on data. Babylon Street did not respond to the comment requests. ICE has also pushed about twelve companies for programs that can be used to overcome traffic codes, display deleted files and analyze email boxes.
Some immigration experts asked about the amount of this technology that the Trump administration might use. Dave Mass, director of investigations at the Electronic Border Foundation, a group of civil freedoms, said that some tools are the most related to targeted investigations, and not for extensive deportations.
Mr. Mas said: “What they buy and what is really useful may be completely different things.” Regardless, he said that technology companies “will make a lot of money.”
methodology
The New York Times analyzed government contract data from the USSpending.gov website. Data covered spending from immigration, customs, citizenship and immigration services from 2020 to the present time. The Times newspaper liquidated and classified data into technology -related contracts, using the recipient information and describing the contract. The Times newspaper looked at the money spent, not just pledged to calculate the total spending and the total number of technology companies.
