What is Palantir's app 'ELITE' that ICE uses to find areas to target for attacks?
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The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has introduced a surveillance tool called ' ELITE ' (Enhanced Leads Identification & Targeting for Enforcement), developed by the American tech company Palantir, to help with crackdowns in local communities. Independent media outlet 404 has provided an explanation of ELITE based on internal documents and testimony from officials it obtained exclusively.
'ELITE': The Palantir App ICE Uses to Find Neighborhoods to Raid
https://www.404media.co/elite-the-palantir-app-ice-uses-to-find-neighborhoods-to-raid/
ELITE is a tool that displays the density of people on a map interface similar to Google Maps, and when you select a specific person, it instantly provides detailed personal information such as a photo, alien registration number, date of birth, and latest address.
ELITE uses a wide variety of data sources, aggregating vast amounts of information from both public and private sources. From the public perspective, it leverages data from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which provides personal address information, as well as data from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). ELITE also leverages contracts for Medicaid medical data.
Additionally, ICE also receives a huge amount of commercial information from the private sector through CLEAR, a data product sold by Thomson Reuters , a major information services company. ICE also pays third-party companies to verify the accuracy of addresses and corroborate the information.
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This information is integrated with government and commercial databases and subjected to advanced analytics using Palantir's technology to calculate an 'Address Confidence Score' based on the accuracy and recency of the information, ranging from 0 to 100. This allows authorities to prioritize areas with higher target concentrations, develop efficient crackdown plans, and direct field investigators to make actual arrests.
Palantir has signed a $29.9 million (approximately 4.57 billion yen) guarantee contract to develop and enhance ELITE. ELITE, which was previously a criminal investigation support tool, has been significantly shifted under the second Trump administration to a practical support tool for deportation purposes.
In Woodburn, Oregon, a large-scale raid was carried out based on a tip from ELITE, with three undercover vehicles surrounding an apartment building, smashing the vehicle windows and dragging a woman out.
Federal agents target observers in the aftermath of Renee Good shooting - YouTube
Additionally, on January 7, 2026, an ICE agent shot and killed a citizen . There have also been incidents of violence against politicians, with Minneapolis City Council Speaker Elliot Payne being pushed to the ground by an agent while observing an investigation on a public road.
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In response to this situation, six protesters filed a lawsuit in a federal district court seeking a preliminary injunction to restrict the actions of federal agents in Minneapolis. In the lawsuit, the Department of Justice argued that citizens were pursuing ICE vehicles in order to attract large crowds to the scene. However, Judge Katherine Menendez pointed out that there was no evidence that the drivers were violating traffic laws, and harshly questioned the Department of Justice as to whether pursuing agents was in line with their First Amendment rights.
Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon also criticized Palantir and the ELITE app, which uses government databases, saying, 'The app is choosing who to arrest and take into custody like choosing a local coffee shop, undermining the very concept of maintaining public order.' Mickey Osterreicher, legal counsel for the National Press Photographers Association, said, 'The law is being upheld by people who believe they are above the law. This is a serious problem not only for journalists and watchdogs, but for democracy itself.'
by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement
The Electronic Frontier Foundation called on Congress to take immediate action to put the brakes on this runaway trend that threatens the privacy and security of every American.
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